ArmInfo. I am deeply convinced that the law "On Bank Secrecy" is necessary for our country. First of all, in view of the fact that this law is an additional guarantee of attracting investments, and in the existing conditions it is also a guarantee of preventing the outflow of funds from banks, former Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, economist Bagrat Asatryan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
The Constitutional Court postponed until June 16 the consideration of the issue of compliance with the Constitution of the draft amendments and additions to the Law on Bank Secrecy and the Code of Criminal Procedure, scheduled for April 28. In February, the bill was sent to the Constitutional Court by Armenian President Armen Sarkissian.
The latter refused to sign the amendments adopted by the parliament, justifying it as problematic in terms of their compliance with the Constitution. "The fact is that the perceptions and expectations of our society from these amendments and changes differ significantly from the decisions provided by law.
It seems to me that a certain segment of law enforcement agencies approaches this problem from the wrong side. Such officials aggressively try to come up with quick solutions, not understanding the essence of the problem. Meanwhile, such an approach is inherently destructive and does not lead to positive results, it will only harm banking system, "the expert said. According to Asatryan's estimates, most of the countries of the world do not have laws "On Bank Secrecy" today, since the concept of bank secrecy in developed countries has become a kind of culture and does not need legislative regulation. Accordingly, in many countries, banks are "open" and relevant information is, in principle, available to tax and law enforcement agencies.
"At the same time, in such countries, strong traditions of protecting the institution of property rights are in place. Of course, including regarding bank deposits of citizens. All this has been gradually formed over the years and today it works almost automatically, and accordingly, there is no need for legislative regulation. Unfortunately, our country is still very far from similar realities and culture. In this light, I really hope that the position of the Constitutional Court on this issue will be extremely clear, "the economist concluded.
On January 22, the Armenian parliament adopted the legislative initiative of the government on introducing amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Law on Bank Secrecy. According to the current legislation, the access of law enforcement agencies to banking information is limited to accounts of citizens suspected and accused of crimes. The new law gives investigative authorities access to accounts of persons connected with those who are under suspicion. In order to apply the adopted amendments, the parliament also amended the Code of Criminal Procedure.
