Dubai, Dec 13 (IANS) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pledged full support and help to international efforts aimed at stopping money laundering and terror financing, news agency WAM reported Thursday.
“The UAE believes that a true public-private partnership is the best way to arrive at full-proof mechanisms and regulations to combat money laundering and terror financing”, Abdul Rahim Mohammed Al Awadi, assistant executive manager of the UAE Central Bank’s Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Cases Unit (AMLSCU), said Wednesday.
He was addressing the third US and Middle East, North Africa (US-MENA) conference convened here to discuss ways of stopping money laundering and combating terror financing.
The conference was organised by the UAE Central Bank in association with the Union of Arab Banks and the US Department of Treasury.
Al Awadi told the gathering that the UAE Central Bank had introduced measures to protect the country’s banking sectors from money launderers and terror financiers, and stressed the need for regular updating of such systems.
Greater cooperation between financial, supervisory, regulatory and law enforcement authorities is needed to combat money laundering, he added.
He announced that the UAE would chair the MENA Financial Act Taskforce (FATF) in 2008.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman of the Union of Arab Banks Adnan Yuosif said that according to a 2007 anti-money laundering survey conducted by the global consulting firm KPMG, the amount of money laundered is in excess of $1 trillion.