BEIRUT: Head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Joseph Torbey said Wednesday that banks are fully complying with all procedures and laws as part of efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. “In accordance with the principles of the Basel Committee, all banks should have adequate policies and procedures as well as due diligence rules on clients to promote ethical and professional standards in the banking sector and to prevent any bank from being used in any illegal activity,” Torbey, who is also the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Arab Banks, told a conference on combating money laundering organized by the Union of Arab Banks.
Lebanese and Arab banks have been updating their procedures and guidelines in a concerted effort to crackdown on money laundering and terrorism funding.
These banks hold regular meetings with U.S. and European officials to keep them abreast of the latest measures adopted by these lenders.
“We have chosen our meeting today to be under the title ‘One Hand to Meet the Challenges of Our Arab Banks’ based on the fact that the banking sector is the mainstay of the economic and financial life of our Arab countries. The issue of combating money laundering, the mechanisms of drying up the sources of terrorism and tax evasion has become the concern of the international regulatory organizations,” Torbey said.
He added that sanctions are a clear and decisive message for banks so they won’t be too lax in self-monitoring, and to apply international standards and laws to combat money laundering and terrorism funding.
“This requires all of us to make every effort to protect and safeguard our financial system and to maintain its integrity and efficiency,” Torbey explained, adding that financial institutions in general and banks in particular, have become the target for those behind the financial crimes.
“Anti-money-laundering and the financing of terrorism have become important and interrelated. The perpetrators of the crime are making every effort to access the banking system of countries. The banking systems have become one of the most important battlefields for money laundering and terrorist financing,” Torbey said.
He commended the cooperation between the Arab banks and interior ministries in Arab countries to combat all attempts to launder money through the financial systems.
For his part, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said that the cooperation between banks and the security forces has become a success story in Lebanon.
Machnouk added that the Lebanese banking sector remained solid and robust even in difficult times and during severe financial crisis in the world.
Machnouk said that the Lebanese banking sector is still the backbone of the economy.
The minister also noted that the deposits of the lenders are three times the size of the GDP.
