BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10. A unified compliance
(activities in accordance with legislation and regulations)
ecosystem is essential for the region's financial stability,
Director of the Financial Monitoring Policy and Regulation
Department of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Zaur Hajili,
said during the second day of “International Finance and Banking
Summit 2026: Global Financial Integration of Turkic States” in
Baku, Trend
reports.


He noted that in modern times, it is no longer possible for
supervisory and regulatory bodies to operate in isolation, and the
traditional "hard supervisor" model is outdated. According to him,
the rapid development of fintech technologies, virtual assets, and
artificial intelligence in particular necessitates a change in the
regulatory approach.


Hajili pointed out that there are differences in compliance
approaches on a macro-regional scale, including the countries of
Central Asia and the Caspian basin.


"These differences are manifested both in the regulatory
framework and in the implementation mechanisms, and as a result,
regulatory arbitrage, as well as 'gray zones', are formed. This
increases the country risk for international investors and
first-tier correspondent banks," the bank representative
explained.


According to him, investors no longer evaluate individual
countries, but the region as a whole, and look at financial
stability on a regional scale.


"Therefore, it is important to form a single 'compliance'
ecosystem. This ecosystem should act as an adaptive environment
where international standards, corporate and compliance culture,
high-tech solutions, and synchronized rules between countries are
applied," he mentioned.


The director of the department emphasized that modern
"compliance" rules should no longer be perceived as a burden, but
rather as a factor that creates competitive advantage.


"This approach is based on four main pillars, the first of which
is international standards, in particular the FATF (Financial
Action Task Force) recommendations on combating money laundering,
and a risk-based approach," Hajili clarified.







He said that since the Azerbaijani economy is an integral part
of the global economic system, elements of a number of European
Union directives are also taken into account and applied in the
country's legislation. According to him, against the backdrop of
the complexity of the current geopolitical environment and
international sanctions regimes, the approach of supervisory and
regulatory authorities should be even more decisive and
principled.


"The financial system must comply with the integrity of the
global financial system and be kept away from systemic risks. The
established rules and requirements are not restrictions, but rather
transparent rules of the game, which creates an advantage for large
investors and partners," the official announced.


He added that the second main pillar is regulatory digital
solutions.


"The region has developed a unique experience of supervisory and
regulatory bodies, a large amount of data is collected, and manual
analysis of this data is no longer possible. For this reason, the
application of SupTech technologies is expanding," Hajili also
said.


According to him, the goal of modern innovations is not to limit
them, but to ensure their safe development. In this context,
cybersecurity, the fight against money laundering, as well as the
protection of consumer and investor rights are particularly
priorities.


The department director highlighted that within the framework of
the new regulatory approach, innovative technologies are tested
using special regimes, which creates a favorable environment for
the introduction of technologies in the country.


Hajili added that the third and most important pillar is the
culture of compliance, which is a key component of corporate
ethics.