At Friday's Cabinet meeting, the government approved the draft law of Armenia on ratifying the multilateral agreement of competent authorities on the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts.

The aforesaid agreement was launched by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

As per the respective explanation, in the coming years, according to the corresponding decision of the Armenian government, it is planned to create in the coming years information collection, automated transmission, and exchange of information on the financial accounts of foreign residents in the reporting financial institutions of Armenia with foreign competent authorities, as well as a system for receiving from foreign competent authorities information regarding the bank accounts of the residents of Armenia in the financial institutions of foreign countries. This will enable countries to obtain information about their citizens' bank accounts abroad—including for criminal investigations.

Armenia is going to introduce a standard for collecting such data from local banks, storing them, and transferring them to authorized agencies of partner countries. In turn, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia will be able to receive the same data regarding the bank accounts of Armenian citizens abroad.

A total of 119 countries have joined the aforementioned agreement; and after signing it, Armenia can inform the OECD with which countries it is ready or not ready to exchange such information.