By NNN-SANA,
Damascus : The Department for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in Syria and the Turkish Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) have signed an agreement for exchanging information related to money laundering, terrorism financing and related criminal activities.
The agreement was signed by Chairman of the Department for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Dr Adib Mayala and head of MASAK Adnan Erturk.
The Department for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing is the Syrian financial investigation unit at the Damascus Central Bank which was founded in 2005. The department is tasked with receiving, analysing and investigating reports on money laundering and terrorist financing operations and providing authorities with the needed information in that regard.
The department is part of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, a conglomeration of financial investigation units from 106 countries, since 2007. The Egmont Group was founded in 1995 in Brussels in order to cooperate and exchange information among financial investigation units in the field of combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
Two similar agreements were signed with the financial investigation units in Cyprus and Lebanon, with more agreements to be signed with other units from the Egmont Group.