Arab anti-money laundering regional group launched

19 April 2005

BEIRUT - The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has set up a regional grouping to combat
money laundering in the Middle East and North Africa, the head of the Arab banking association said
yesterday.

Joseph Torbey told a Beirut forum that 14 Arab states had joined the new grouping, FATF's seventh
regional affiliate around the world.

The new body's president - Lebanon's Mohammed Baasiri - said "no Arab country is on the FATF
blacklist." But Torbey called on Arab states to "demonstrate transparency" following accusations
since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States that Arab financial and charitable
institutions had been abused to fund terrorism.

"After adopting laws against money laundering and terrorism funding in the past few years, Arab
states should introduce new measures to boost the immunity of their banks," Torbey said.

"The most important measures are aimed at creating an Arab coordination mechanism to fight money
laundering and an Arab financial compensation centre to avoid the entry of dirty money into Arab"
states, he said.

Central Bank of Lebanon governor Riad Salameh called on Arab central banks to "respect international
laws aimed at controlling the use of dirty money emanating from illegal activities to finance
terrorist acts and corruption."

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