All non-public funds to be accountable to Armenia`s CB 

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.