Assaf said a Working Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Financial Measures, a grouping comprising 32 countries and two regional organizations, including Saudi Arabia through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), had been making extensive efforts in this area and issued 40 recommendations to combat money laundering operations in addition to the nine recommendations issued earlier to combat financing of terrorism. "We realized early in the Kingdom of the seriousness of economic crimes in general and money laundering operations in particular. Saudi Arabia is among the first countries which gave special attention to counter money laundering, through its commitment to many rules and international conventions and putting them into practice. Nevertheless, the Kingdom has hosted numerous conferences and symposia, local and international activities associated with combating money laundering. In this context, he said the first meeting outside Paris for FATF founded in 1989, was convened at the Saudi Institute of Banking, an affiliate of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) in Riyadh in 1994. Al-Assaf also pointed to the implementation of several training programmes for the sectors involved in combating money laundering, including the training programmes for local banks in addition to security and judicial sectors as well as public prosecution. --MORE
