2nd Annual Middle East Anti-Money Laundering Forum concuded
On May 27-28, 2007, the 2nd Annual Middle East Anti-Money Laundering Forum took place in Bahrain, UAE to highlight the need to ensure pursuing more efforts for eliminating money laundering by financial institutions.
Annual Middle East Anti-Money Laundering Forum aims at maintaining successful anti-money laundering strategies using knowledge, teamwork and greater transparency and understanding changes in regulatory guidelines.
The 2nd Middle East Ant-Money Laundering Forum was a good opportunity for professionals to learn decisive and effective anti-money laundering strategies. The Forum offered unique information on the latest changes to guidelines and best practices on anti-money laundering strategies all over the world. The review of evolving technological solutions and training methods for financial institutions was also on the list.
The event was attended by some 60 specialists from the GCC and Middle East countries.
Head of Compliance of Oman International Bank (OIB), Hany Abou-El-Fotouh, has presented his speech at the forum. He told the delegation, that it has been agreed that Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure was very important and that this due diligence and bank regulation must be observed by financial institutions in order to identify their customers and do financial business with them.
Abou-El-Fotouh emphasized the importance of adequate staffing the compliance units of financial institutions. Also, he stressed the importance of on-going training on all aspects of money laundering control to ensure employees’ being up-to-date regarding money laundering and suspicious transactions and their identification.