BEIRUT, May 14 (KUNA) -- Kuwait has been following a strict policy regarding fighting money laundering and drying up sources of funding terrorism, said Joseph Torbey, President of the World Union of Arab Bankers (WUAB) on Thursday.
Kuwait is adroit at training employees of banks and financial institutions to be on the lookout for any discrepancies they may detect in financial statements, records, or documents which may indicate instances of money laundering or funding terrorism, Torbey said at the opening of a forum here themed "mechanisms of drying up sources of funding terrorism".
Affirming that fighting terrorism could not successfully occur if not matched with dogged tracking down of sources of funding it, Mohammad bin Ali Koman, secretary general of the Council of Arab Ministers of Interior, told the forum that the Council worked hard to propagate the virtues of moderation and the shunning of speeches that smack of sectarianism and extremism.
Such speeches have become a springboard to acts of terrorism in many instances, he said.
This forum is timely because there is increasing interest from the public and private sectors and international organizations specializing in financial monitoring processes to identify and develop sure-fire methods to fight money laundering schemes and to liquidate sources of terrorism, said Union of Arab Bankers' secretary general Wisam Fotouh, in remarks to KUNA.
He emphasized the noxious aspects of money laundering on the work of banks and financial institutions.
The two-day forum addresses, besides money laundering and funding terrorism, a number of issues dealing with legislation governing the transfer of money securely and safely and the future of banking in view of rising new technologies with direct impact on money management. (end) mah.ajs