Azerbaijan State Committee for Securities

The mission of the State Committee for Securities of the Republic of Azerbaijan is to formulate and implement single state policy in the securities market, ensure the development of securities market and its infrastructure. The State Committee for Securities under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established following the 30 December 1998 Decree of nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev. The Committee started off as a body under direct supervision of the Presidential Administration to indicate high political will and status that was required for the formulation of securities market in the country at that period. The Charter of the State Committee for Securities was approved on 26 June 1999 thus enabling it to coordinate single state policy on securities market, act as regulator and exercise efficient supervision.

The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Office of the State Securities Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established on 22 September 2005 to expand regional coverage of the supervision. Thus, effective regulation of the securities market covered the whole territory of the country.Existence of new development trends and the need for more flexible regulation and supervision has led to the restructuring of the Committee in 2008. An independent central executive agency – the State Committee for Securities of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established following the relevant Presidential decree on 19 November 2008 and has become the member of the government. The Charter of the State Committee for Securities and its structure was approved under the relevant Decree on 5 March 2009. At present, the SCS is an independent structure in the government and reports to the Prime Minister.

International relations of Committee

Building and managing international relations and mutual cooperation framework is one of the priority tasks for the SCS. International relations are pursued in two directions – institutional and functional. Building and managing relations with regulators of securities market, as well as with relevant international and regional organizations is one of the main directions as part of relation building. Main purpose of SCS cooperation with regulators of other states is to exercise effective supervision on financial markets and conduct necessary information exchange. Another important trend as part of the cooperation with regulatory bodies is to exchange experience that would help to build capacity and carry out institutional building. As part of this initiative SCS has signed some contracts with securities market regulators of a number of states that define legal framework of cooperation and information exchange.

These contracts include: cooperation agreement between the State Securities Committee under the President of Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus as well as memorandum of understanding with the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Markets and Financial Organizations signed in 2007, Capital Markets Board of Turkey in 2010, Georgian National Bank in 2011, State Commission on Securities and Stock Markets of Ukraine in 2013, Polish Financial Supervision Authority in 2014, National Commission on Financial Markets of the Republic of Moldova. SCS has been a member of the Council of the chairmen of state bodies that regulate securities markets of CIS countries and has managed to build bilateral and multilateral relations with members of the Council. As part of this initiative SCS is continuously conducting information and experience exchange with the authorities that regulate securities markets of CIS member states.

Building cooperation with relevant international and regional organizations is another priority for the SCS. As part of this priority, a number of technical assistance projects have been rendered and international expertise that covers wide market subjects has been applied in order to study international experience on securities market. Improvement of legal and regulatory framework, modernization of capital markets infrastructure, building professional capacities and awareness raising, capacity building of market institutions have been supported under the projects implemented by the European Union, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Finance Corporation, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, United States Agency for International Development, Turkish Cooperation and Development Office and Korean International Development Agency.