Anti-Money Laundering Plan

With the deadline for a second review by a global task force of the government’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing fast approaching, the Kingdom’s central bank yesterday conducted a workshop with banks, financial institutions and state agencies to flesh out a strategy to combat the international crimes. “The government continues to cooperate with international agencies to act against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This workshop aims to come up with a national strategy to strengthen the legal framework and implement the law to fight these crimes,” said Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia and head of the National Coordination Committee on Anti-Money-Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.
 

Cambodia’s anti-money laundering strategies, as well as those used to prevent financing of terrorism, have not been reviewed by the Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering since 2007, when the agency first worked with the government to evaluate policies and strategies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The APG, which was founded in 1997 as part of the global Financial Action Task Force, is an autonomous agency that collaborates with member governments to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. It has given the government a year-end deadline for a review of its national strategies that has to comply with APG’s evaluation methodology for assessments of technical compliance as well as effectiveness of rules and monitoring.
 

“Cambodia had once been evaluated by the APG in 2007, but did not get a good result because there was a lack of laws in the country to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism. The APG evaluation this time will be quite complicated compared to the past evaluation,” said Mr. Chanto. The central bank governor said Cambodia has been working hard on a national strategy and amending laws to criminalize money laundering and terrorism financing since the 2007 evaluation.

 

-- © Copyright Khmer Times 24/08

 

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