This project was funded by the European Union and implemented by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
Bu layihə Avtopa İttifaqı tərəfindən maliyyələşdirilir və Polşa Maliyyə Nəzarət orqanı tərəfindən icra edilir.

From September 2012 to July 2014 the Polish Financial Supervision Authority - UKNF carried out an EU twinning project  “Approximation of the legal and regulatory framework for the securities market of Azerbaijan according to the European Union acquis and capacity building for the State Committee for Securities” for the benefit of the State Committee for Securities (SCS) of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Twinning reference number: AZ11/ENP/ENP-PCA/FI/18, Twinning contract number: ENPI/2012/299-086).

The UKNF, selected by the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan as a contractor of the abovementioned Project, was responsible for the overall Project implementation and budget (in the amount of around EUR 1 million).

The Project’s purpose was to improve the legal framework as well as the regulatory and institutional capacities of the State Committee for Securities of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SCS) – the Project Beneficiary, in order to regulate the securities market and financial service providers in line with the European Union acquis.

The Beneficiary recipients of the Project activities were both employees of the SCS as well as other capital market institutions in Azerbaijan, including Baku Stock Exchange and Central Securities Depository.

The overall Project’s purpose has been successfully achieved thanks to strong and close cooperation among experts from the UKNF and the SCS. In order to accomplish mandatory results of this Project, 50 various project activities took place in the form of short term experts’ missions regarding particular subjects, including 7 steering committees as well as 2 internships and 2 study visits of the representatives of the Beneficiary to Poland and Germany.
In total, 39 expert missions have been conducted in Azerbaijan and over 50 short term exerts took part in them, mainly from the UKNF. For certain missions the UKNF’s representatives have been supported by ad hoc experts from the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the Polish National Depository for Securities and from the German supervision - Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin).
All experts (key and supporting) dedicated to each Project’s activity had both theoretical and practical experience as well as professional background relevant to the subject of the activity.

The Project consisted of three components:

Component 1: Legal Drafting Support and Advice.
Component 2: Upgrading regulatory and supervisory skills.
Component 3: Raising awareness of securities market participants in Azerbaijan.

All the activities for all three components, including one supplementary expert mission, have been implemented in line with the scope stipulated in the Twinning Contract. The activities included trainings, workshops, consultations, gap analysis and were focused on transfer of know – how, experience, lessons learned and good practices based on the EU acquis as well as on the Polish law regarding capital market.

Through the solid cooperation between the SCS and the UKNF, the following results have been achieved by the end of the Project’s implementation within the UKNF’s input:

1. A prudential regulatory and supervisory framework for the securities market – approximated with the relevant EU Directives, legal acts and best practices– is effectively introduced in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
2. Improved capacity and operation of the SCS to regulate, control and supervise the securities market in the Republic of Azerbaijan according to the EU standards and best practices.
3. Securities market participants are well aware of the new regulatory framework of the securities market, which was approximated to the relevant EU Directives.

The input provided by the MS experts constituted a base for approximation of the Azerbaijani legal and regulatory framework to the EU acquis in the field of capital market (e.g. Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, Transparency Directive, Market Abuse Directive, Prospectus Directive, CRD). Thus, the SCS’s capacities have increased in terms of regulating the securities market and strengthening its supervisory functions in line with the EU acquis and best practices.

The carried out analyses, consultation services and training sessions as well as training materials, recommendations, manuals and working papers developed by the UKNF experts were highly evaluated by the Azerbaijan side, i.e. beneficiaries of the project and approved by the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan in Baku.

With the assistance of the UKNF experts all planned project objectives and outputs have been successfully achieved.

The legal duration of the project: September 2012 – July 2014. The Final Report was approved by the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan in Baku on 1st August 2014.

Contact:
Joanna Lipowczan
Deputy Project Leader
e-mail: joanna.lipowczan@knf.gov.pl