In response to the recent fallout surrounding the Troika Laudromat money laundering investigation, Armenia’s Central Bank released a statement today declaring that all the banks and financial organizations it monitors and manages adhere to international rules and Armenian law regarding the prevention of money laundering.

Armenia’s Central Bank writes that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) monitors these steps and that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism – MONEYVAL, evaluated the steps taken by Armenia as “highly effective” in this regard in 2015 and in 2018, according to the methodology set forth by the FATF. According to a 2018 MONEYVAL rating, Armenia ranked in the top five out of seventy countries evaluated.

“Regarding the activities of Ūkio Bankas and the financial transactions conducted via the bank in the 2000s, we note that that Armenia’s Central Bank’s department responsible for conducting a campaign against money laundering has actively cooperated with its overseas partners, including via the exchange of information, and that necessary prevention measures were taken according to the legislation of the time,” the Central Bank writes, noting that Ūkio Bankas ceased operating in 2013.