The growing interest in money-laundering offenses in recent years poses a grave challenge to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Assaf here Sunday. Addressing a symposium on “Money-laundering: Status and Challenges,” hosted by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), he said the bad money globally account for 2-5% of the world GDP as per some estimates. He, however, said FATF has been making efforts to fight this menace. It has made many recommendations to combat money-laundering and terror financing. The minister said Saudi Arabia was among the first countries to give special attention to counter money-laundering. The Kingdom played a central role in establishing Middle East North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), he said. Anti-money-laundering units were set up at the Ministry of Interior, the SAMA and commercial banks in 1995. Recently similar units have been established at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of justice. __
