AUA LL.M. Program Hosts Compliance Workshop

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YEREVAN, Armenia – The American University of Armenia (AUA) LL.M. Program organized a three-session workshop on compliance, starting on January 22 and concluding on January 30. The workshop was taught by Lusine Shahmuradyan, a professional with an extensive background in banking law and compliance, both in Armenia and the Netherlands.

The main objective of the workshop was to enable the students to grasp the concept of compliance as a relatively new area of regulation in financial and other business sectors. During the first session, the students learned the basics of regulations that are currently in place, as well as regulatory approaches and models. The students also had a brief journey into the history of financial regulations and discussed the events that have shaped modern regulations. The next session was dedicated to compliance rules that are in place today, as well as the concept, structure, and mechanisms of compliance. Various approaches were discussed concerning the organization of a compliance department and the main duties of a compliance officer.

The last session was about specific areas of compliance, including the prevention of money-laundering, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, bribery, internal fraud, high risk clients, the European Commission’s Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments, and whistle blower protection. A number of examples and real case studies were presented and discussed during the session.  The film, The Big Short, which presents the reasons, sources, and the chronology of the credit crunch that occurred in the US financial market in 2008, was screened.

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia and affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides US-style education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality, graduate and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting public service and democratic values.