Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- From March 22-23, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) will be one of the sponsors of the First International Conference on Money Laundering Prevention and Terrorism Funding to be held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

The convention will be held under the patronage of the Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Ahmad Nadheef, organized by the Arab Bank Union in participation with the United States Treasury Department along with the cooperation with many regional and international banking organizations. The event will be attended by Finance Ministers, Arab Economist, Central Banking Governors and Authorities in Arab and international banks.

Mr. Hany Faidy, the NCB Head of Compliance, who will lead the NCB group participating, stated that the bank’s gold sponsorship is initiated by the upper managements recognition of the importance of such an international event on prevention of money laundering as well as evaluating the special laws and systems concerning it and the role of regional finance task force teams.

He added that the bank’s participation in the conference would be a good opportunity to observe international practices in this field and would be a fertile environment for bank officials to exchange knowledge with other experts in order to overcome the risks and dangers of these illegal acts and support the development of the NCB’s performance in these aspects.

In response to a question regarding the aim of this convention, the director stated that it was to organize an open discussion among the private sector and raise the awareness and understanding regarding the funding of terrorism and money laundering. In addition, it is an opportunity to look into developmental methods, practices and programs performed to fight these dangers and enhance the applied measures to prevent money laundering and funding of terrorism.

Mr. Faidy stated that the convention will explore several topics , the most prominent being the development and application of security guidelines in the prevention of money laundering and terrorism funding in the private sector and develop the control over institutional money laundering and terrorism funding in high risk services and products.

The basic principles of the programs to fight money laundering, evaluation, and management of combined risk and factors of terrorism funding will be discussed. Moreover, the role of Islamic banks in the fight against money laundering and terrorism funding.

The NCB Head of Compliance concluded by expressing his hopes that the exchanges at the convention would lead to developing the preventive measures and provide more security for finance transactions and block threats caused by the various methods of money laundering.