RIYADH, 12 July — AlBank AlSaudi AlFransi has intensified efforts to combat moneylaundering, which has become the third largest industry in the world after currency exchange and automobile manufacturing with a whopping sum of $1.4 trillion circulating through the global banking network. This was announced here yesterday at a seminar on money-laundering and financial fraud organized by BSF in cooperation with Citibank.
“The aim of the seminar is to work out strategy to ensure maximum security for preventing money laundering,” said Philippe Touchard, BSF’s Chief Internal Auditor and Compliance Officer. He said BSF had stiffened measures to prevent entry of illicit funds into the Saudi banking system and had put in extensive efforts to enlighten its employees on the social menace.
He said more than 500 BSF employees had completed especially designed courses on ways and means to combat money-laundering and detect fraud. The seminar was part of a comprehensive training program. The employees shared their views and opinions on a wide range of issues related to the subject with their colleagues from Citibank.
Asked about the role of Saudi banks, particularly the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Touchard said, “Actions and steps taken by SAMA in the last five years had ensured clean business for banks. The BSF, on its part, has geared itself to monitor suspicious activities and to look into client accounts within the framework of guidelines provided by SAMA and international regulatory bodies”.
He said the BSF “was in no way complacent or lenient with deposited money whose origins are not transparent. In the past ... we disclosed to SAMA cases of clients whose account dealings did not match their profiles”. The BSF is currently setting up a system to monitor suspicious accounts.
Touchard called on the banks to raise awareness on combating money-laundering in order to protect their reputation as well as their shareholders, investors and clients. “Money-laundering concerns not only clients but also the bank’s business partners,” said the BSF official, citing the Clearstream issue in Europe. Clearstream, based in Luxembourg, is the new name of CEDEL, one of the two major clearing houses for cash and securities in Europe.
He said Clearstream was currently under investigation over allegations of facilitating money-laundering.
“Though we cannot predict results of the investigation, the BSF would not take any risk. I personally instructed concerned BSF departments to move our holdings from Clearstream to Euroclear, another European clearing house,” he said.
Touchard, who also represents the BSF on the SAMA-sponsored Local Bank Fraud Committee, said his bank had been sharing information with other banks as part of a regular inter-bank practice. All commercial banks are represented on the LBFC, which meets on a monthly basis to exchange views and information about reported cases of fraud.
The BSF is one of leading joint-venture banks with 57 branches across the Kingdom. Credit Agricole Indosuez of France holds a 31 percent stake in BSF.
