CBA tightens corporate governance standards for investment companies

The Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, CBA, has amended the "Corporate Governance Standards in Investment Companies," Report informs.

The relevant decision was signed by CBA Chairman Taleh Kazimov.

Under the amendments, in addition to internal discipline requirements, including anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, whistleblower protection and confidentiality measures, the standards now include new provisions aimed at increasing the responsibility of investment companies.

In particular, requirements have been introduced to prevent public statements that could damage a company's reputation, abuse of official powers and conflicts of interest.

Investment companies must also ensure fair treatment of clients, offer products that meet their needs and interests, and follow the principles of good faith, transparency and social responsibility in financial markets.

Companies are also required to ensure control over the practical implementation of these rules. Each investment company must create an independent structure to review client complaints, either as a separate unit or by appointing a responsible person, depending on the scale of its operations and number of clients.

Oversight of this structure will be assigned to the member of the executive body responsible for the compliance function. If no such person exists, oversight will be carried out by the head of the executive body.

The main tasks of the function include receiving and reviewing client complaints, providing consultations, maintaining a register and statistics of complaints, training staff, submitting quarterly reports to management and interacting with the Central Bank on client appeals.