The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established by the end of the eighties of the last century and the Financial Action Task Force for the Middle East and North Africa (MENAFATF) was founded in the middle of this decade. The Kingdom is an active member in these two groups. BIS Review 54/2010  1  In 2003, the Anti-Money Laundering Law, which provided for criminalizing offenses related to money laundering was issued, followed by its Executive Regulations. The issuing of this Law and its Executive Regulations has helped government organs and their subordinate entities concerned with combating money laundering to develop necessary mechanisms and procedures to implement the Anti-Money Laundering Law and related rules and ensure that they are fully complied with. These organs have established specialized departments responsible for implementing these rules (compliance function), appointed qualified human resources (compliance officers), and allocated human and financial resources necessary to enable them to perform their functions properly. At the same time, each supervisory government authority has enacted rules and regulations derived from the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and its Executive Regulations and included them in its by-laws in a way commensurate with the work of those organs. Within the framework of the kingdom’s efforts to combat money laundering, I would like to highlight the following: 1. The Permanent Committee for Combating Money Laundering, which consists of representatives from seven ministries and government departments, has been established at SAMA to deal with issues related to money laundering. 2.
Any irregularities are detected and reported to concerned authorities to take actions for continually checking that they are corrected. 7. SAMA has established a permanent committee for regular monitoring of financial crimes in general and money laundering crimes in particular. The committee is made up of members from SAMA and banks to review the instructions and procedures taken in this regard so as to be applied as required. 8. SAMA has attached great importance to training in the field of combating money laundering. SAMA’s IOB held 47 training courses benefiting 800 trainees during 2009. Several government authorities, which are concerned with anti-money laundering issues, have also made great efforts to train their employees. A number of conferences and symposiums at the domestic and regional levels have been  2  BIS Review 54/2010  hosted to raise awareness of the issue of money laundering and strengthen human and technical capabilities to combat it. Your meeting today in this symposium is only part of SAMA’s efforts to raise the level of compliance and anti-money laundering. Dear audience, Despite considerable efforts made to promote the principle of compliance and anti-money laundering that have had a significant positive impact, money laundering criminal activities always seek new techniques to be able to continue. Hence, we always need to be alert and cautious, and we should enhance our capabilities and do our utmost to fulfill the tasks entrusted to us.