Five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have agreed to a joint evaluation with the global Financial Action Task Force on money laundering (FATF) to examine financial and banking systems, the legal framework and the impact of money laundering on their economies, reported the Emirate's news agency (WAM). The five countries are the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, said the agency, quoting a Paris-based FATF secretariat official.
FATF, the global organization in which the GCC is a member, has not received Saudi Arabia's approval, he added.
FATF members are committed to the discipline of multilateral monitoring and peer review on the basis of self-assessment and mutual evaluation procedures.
Both steps provide the necessary peer pressure for a thorough implementation of 40 recommendations outlined by FATF to curb money laundering, added WAM.
The GCC states are expected to forward their self-assessment reports for discussion in FATF's fourth plenary meeting in Madrid in October, he said.
The mutual evaluation reports of the GCC states, however, will be discussed at FATF plenary meetings in 2000-2001, a FATF report says, according to the report, according to the agency - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
