Anti Money Laundering Blog

The United Arab Emirates and Montenegro signed a Memorandum of Understanding providing for joint co-operation in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The document was signed as a result of the meeting held by Sultan Nasser Al Suweidi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank and Chairman of the National Anti-money Laundering Committee, with a delegation from Montenegro led by Predrag Mitrovic, the Director of the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering.

Memorandum of Understanding signed by two countries implies the exchange of financial information between them regarding money laundering and financing of terrorism, and consolidation of their strategies in fighting money laundering. According to the UAE Central Bank, the conclusion of the MOU means “the UAE’s sincere desire to pursue cooperation with the international community in the fight against these two crimes.”

The document was signed by Predrag Mitrovic and Abdulrahim Mohamed Al Awadi., the Assistant Executive Director and Head of Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Cases Unit (AMLSCU), UAE Central Bank.

On the 12th Annual Meeting of Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, special attention is paid to the measures needed to be done to stop the flow of money through charities and non-profit organizations to terrorists.

During the opening ceremony of the week-long conference, the Home Affairs Minister of Australia Brendan O’Connor addressed the delegates saying that terrorism has become a transnational problem over the past decade, posing risks to international financial systems and global security, and that terrorist groups are funded not only through the drug trade and fraud, but also through legitimate sources such as charitable organizations and business profits. In his speech the Minister said that “The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering plays a vital role in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.” 

Opposition spokesman James Wood talked on the importance of the mechanisms to prevent Australia allowing terrorist groups to launder money in the country. In his turn, Mr. O’Connor informed that new legislation has been introduced to strengthen the criminal asset confiscation regime with unexplained wealth provisions.

The 12th AGP Conference was opened on July 7, 2009 in the Brisbane Convention Centre, and the same day the federal government of Australia released a publication for non-profit organizations to help them safeguard against terrorism financing.

The conference consists of 40 delegations, including China and, for the first time, Papua New Guinea. Among the observers on the conference, there are the Australian Crime Commission, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In June, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued a report and issued it on its website.

This is the 19th Annual Report of the FATF.

This report summarises advances made by the FATF in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. These are as follows:

- Financial Action Task Force policies on admission of new members and observers.
- Statements regarding the anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing risks posed in certain countries and areas.
- Evaluations of the anti-money laundering/ counter-terrorist financing systems of:
Canada;
Finland;
Hong Kong,
the United Arab Emirates
China;
Qatar;
Russia;
Singapore.
- Guidance on implementation of financial prohibitions to combat the threat of proliferation of WMD.
- Best practices for fighting trade-based money laundering.
- Guidance aimed to assist low capacity countries.
- Typologies reports on: TF methods; money laundering and TF vulnerabilities of commercial websites and internet payment systems; and, Proliferation financing.
- Report on national money laundering threat analysis strategies that assists countries with developing threat assessments.
- Closer work with the private sector.

Unity Bank Plc has decided to educate its staff skills in the area of anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing and know-your-customer procedures.

A statement from the bank explained that educating the staff is in fulfillment of the bank’s high ethical stance and national economic wellbeing. According to the statement, Officers of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit are collaborating with Unity Bank for the extensive training.

Unity Bank will train 900 staff in these areas of its operations. 300 of them underwent the training in April and June while the remaining 600 were trained in August.

A 2-day sensitization workshop organized by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) based in Dakar, Senegal, was held in Monrovia. At the workshop, the participants have advanced a number of recommendations.

The sensitization workshop was held under the theme “Enlisting the Support of the Liberian Media, Civil Society Organizations and Professional Groups for GIABA’s Strategic Action Plan to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Liberia.”

Some of the recommendations put forward at the workshop were as follows:

- The participants wanted the Government of Liberia to enact new laws on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in order to correspond to international standards and best practices.

- They recommended the Government of Liberia to pass the Anti-Drugs Law in order to help curb predicated offences that lead to Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

- The participants called on the Government to establish structures like a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that will deal with fighting against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

- They recommended to increase support (training, logistics and other technical supports) to law enforcement agencies.

- The participants called on the Government to improve the monitoring of the financial sector.

- They touched upon the roles of the media, civil society and professional groups in fighting Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, recommending to establish stakeholder networks in order to enhance coordination, awareness and sensitization on impact of the problem in Liberia.

The central banks of Bangladesh and Malaysia are planning to seal a pact on sharing information as regards money laundering. The agreement will soon be signed by the Bangladesh Bank and Bank Negara Malaysia.

The central bank of Bangladesh also intends to sign similar agreements with some other countries including India.

Also, it wants to join the Egmont Group, an informal international gathering of financial intelligence units, in order to share information on money laundering and to fight money laundering and terrorist financing

Hong Kong’s regimes aimed at countering crime and terrorist-financing have been praised by two large international anti-money laundering groups – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).

An evaluation report published on July 21, 2008 comprised the comments made by both the FATF and the APG. The report praised good legal structure of Hong Kong. It also praised this financial jurisdiction for its conviction rate for money laundering offenses, as well as strong law enforcement and clear-cut obligations for reporting suspicious transactions. According to the report, the Hong Kong’s supervisory regime as regards the banking industry, securities sector and insurance sector has proved effective with comprehensive obligations and various sanctions.

The report also noted that the establishment of the Central Co-ordinating Committee on Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Financing of Terrorism chaired by the Financial Secretary was also a good development for the jurisdiction.

Previously, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) was briefly mentioned as an anti-money laundering organization headquartered in Bahrain. However, this organization does deserve more attention.

MENAFATF is voluntary and co-operative body is established in November 2004 by agreement between its members and independent of other international bodies and organizations.

MENAFATF recognizing the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40 Recommendations on Anti-Money Laundering and the Special 9 Recommendations on Counter-Terrorist Financing as the international standards accepted worldwide.

Members of MENAFATF are as follows:

Jordan,
United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain,
Algeria,
Tunisia,
Saudi Arabia,
Sudan,
Syria,
Republic of Iraq,
Oman,
Qatar,
Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Egypt,
Morocco,
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Yemen.

Besides 17 members, MENAFATF also has 12 observers:

The Republic of France,
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
The United States of America,
The International Monetary Fund,
The World Bank,
The Co-operation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC),
The Financial Action Task Force,
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),
The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (Egmont Group),
Palestine,
The Kingdom of Spain,
The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).

The objectives of MENAFATF member countries are the following:

adopting and implementing the 40 Recommendations of the FATF against money laundering,
adopting and implementing the Special Recommendations of the FATF against terrorist financing,
implementing the relevant UN treaties and agreements and United Nations Security Council Resolutions dealing with countering money laundering/terrorist financing,
co-operating together in order to raise compliance with these standards and measures within the MENA Region and working with other international organizations in order to raise compliance worldwide,
identifying money laundering/terrorist financing issues of a regional nature, sharing experiences of these issues and developing regional solutions,
building effective arrangements throughout the region to combat effectively money laundering/terrorist financing according to the particular cultural values, constitutional framework and legal systems of the countries which are MENAFATF members.

On July 8, 2008, the 11th Annual Meeting and the 7th Annual Technical Assistance and Training Forum of the Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering opened in Bali, Indonesia’s resort island. The meeting will last till July 11.

At the opening ceremony, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo AS Widodo noted that money laundering is a multidimensional crime and that, to overcome it, all APG members should work hard. According to the minister, efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing should be made not only at national level but also at regional level.

Widodo said that the increasing rate of worldwide crime as a result of globalization is the real challenge. He also added that Indonesia was committed to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing efforts.

At this meeting, the APG planned to evaluate the implementation of international standards against money laundering and terrorist financing issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In February 2008, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) team examined the anti-money laundering and terrorist-financing regime of the British Virgin Islands in February.
 It has recently emerged that the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) was part of the CFATF team.

In its annual report for 2007, CIMA announced that Legal Counsel, Sandra Edun-Watler was the legal examiner in the delegation of law enforcement, financial and legal examiners that conducted the 3ird Round Mutual Evaluation in the British Virgin Islands. The team that undertook the inspection from February 10 to February 23 included officials from the Netherlands, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In its 3rd Round Mutual Evaluation, under the CFATF initiative, the Cayman Islands underwent the same process of examination in November 2007.