RIYADH, 7 May — The US Treasury Department has urged the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to intensify the automation of banking services and to encourage advanced payment systems such as credit cards as part of its efforts to combat money laundering.
High-level sources at SAMA told Arab News that the US government had expressed surprise over the growing use of cash by Saudis for monetary transactions, saying that such transactions would make it difficult for authorities to monitor suspicious dealings.
Payments using credit cards and ATM cards make it easier to trace transactions and the transfer of funds, as well as financial relations between individuals and institutions, they said.
However, the sources added that the United States has expressed satisfaction over the recent measures taken by the Kingdom to combat money laundering.
The Kingdom has taken a series of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The Council of Ministers had invited in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whose money laundering-monitoring duties have been expanded since the Sept. 11 anti-US attacks to include combating terrorist financing.
The FATF, an inter-governmental body set up by a Paris summit of the G-7 industrialized nations in 1989, has issued recommendations to deny terrorists and their supporters access to the international financial system.
The Cabinet also tasked a special committee with SAMA to prepare a bill on fighting money laundering that should take into consideration similar systems in neighboring Gulf Arab states.
SAMA is expected to announce its strategic plans to fight money laundering at an international conference on the topic scheduled to open here next week.
Meanwhile, financial and commercial authorities in the Kingdom have urged companies, traders and banks to inform them of suspicious dealings and to avoid any dealings that would lead to money laundering. Monitoring authorities, they said, have thus far failed to find any suspicious transactions by companies or banks.
The sources said banks and companies in the Kingdom have been cautioned by the Commerce Ministry about conducting financial dealings without complete information about either beneficiaries or senders.
The ministry has informed banks and companies about samples of transactions, which could be used for money laundering and funding suspicious organizations. They include the purchase of precious materials such as gold and jewelry in large quantities at prices higher than the market value, and concluding trade deals for high amounts which will be paid in cash.
The ministry also warned that businesses run by expatriates in the name of Saudis, may also be used for money laundering. It urged Saudis to keep documents related to trade dealings for at least 10 years, and to produce them if required.
