ArmInfo.In Armenia, all non-public and non-state funds will be subject to the requirements of the Central Bank. The RA government approved amendments to the law "On Investment Funds" and a package of related laws at a meeting on September 5.
As noted in the rationale for the draft package of laws, most non-public funds and their managers are currently outside the control of the Central Bank, which does not have the ability to exercise proper control over them and their managers, including protecting the interests of investors, combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In particular, according to current legislation, a non-public fund can be managed by any person, including an individual, without any authority or license. At the same time, there are no requirements for managers, the Central Bank only registers the fund's rules. At the same time, there are no requirements for the content, structure and information in these rules, and the Central Bank is not legally authorized to check the content of the work of non-public funds and their compliance with legal requirements. The procedure for liquidating non-public funds is also not defined.
The new package proposes to extend the provisions of the Law "On Investment Funds" to non-public funds, defining the concept of a fund, its status, the procedure for calculating the value of net assets, and the placement and redemption of fund shares. The Central Bank will be able to apply its instruments to non-public funds and their managers in the event of a violation of the requirements established by law. The Central Bank will also have the right to establish additional requirements for non-public funds and their managers by adopting regulatory legal acts. In addition, with the adoption of the package, a definition of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) will be given and its features will be determined, the shares of which will be traded on the securities exchange. This, according to the authors of the presented documents, will allow issuing ETF shares in the Republic of Armenia.
