Pending the enactment of the new legislation, the Central Bank too issued as far back as 2001, ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) guidelines to all banks and urged adherence when dealing with clients and counterparties. We cannot however be satisfied with the results because it is unlikely that terrorism activity in particular, on the scale that has been unleashed in Sri Lanka, could have taken place if these measures to combat terrorism financing and money laundering had in fact been effective. We believe, the measures introduced have only marginally deterred terrorism financing from delivering such ill-gotten funds to destabilize our country, particularly before 9/11/2001. As many know, Sri Lanka has been crying foul for many years about fund raising for terrorism, taking place in many countries, where the funds were used to procure and supply weapons to wage terrorist activity in our country. Sadly, our pleas were not taken too seriously. But the world took greater note of this scourge after 9/11/2001. Fortunately for us, post 9/11, anti money laundering and terrorism financing measures were pursued with vigour at international level and these processes have been evolving rapidly in recent years. The international community has witnessed the use of increasingly sophisticated methods to curtail the move of illicit funds through the financial systems across the globe. Sri Lanka, naturally, was keen to support this global effort and soon established a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
However, the industry must lose no time in tackling the restructuring that is needed, particularly in the traditional segments. In the area of alternative products, Switzerland has admittedly been successful in the fund of funds business. It is to be hoped that its financial industry will build on this success and become even more of a centre of excellence for alternative investments too. BIS Review 24/2006  1