Research and analysis previously available  4 5  To be published as Notice 627. To be published as Notice 628. Similar guidelines will be issued to finance companies and merchant banks. BIS Review 69/2000  2  only at substantial fees to institutions and high net worth individuals are gradually becoming available to online retail investors as well.6 Secondly, the internet offers increased business opportunities and potentially limitless reach. Thirdly, the internet offers increased scope for cross selling financial products. Successful online firms like Charles Schwab and E*Trade are leveraging on their huge customer base to diversify into banking, bill payment and other areas of services.7 Lastly, do-it-yourself finance facilitated by the internet allows institutions to cut whole layers of customer administration costs. The internet is reducing the cost of capital, at the expense of the spreads that intermediaries traditionally enjoyed from a proprietary informational edge. This reduction of what has been called “knowledge float” will benefit both lenders and borrowers. But at the same time, the internet means new challenges. The same borderless nature can mean footloose customers and businesses. Cyberspace so blurs physical distinctions and facilitates convenient access that financial institutions can uproot themselves, go elsewhere, and yet seamlessly offer the same services online. Jurisdictional boundaries become harder to enforce, while new business models potentially raise new operational, strategic and systemic risks. Evolving the infrastructure for electronic finance in capital markets MAS has been closely monitoring these developments and scrutinising their implications for our financial centre.

Abdulrahman A Al-Hamidy: Compliance and anti-money laundering Speech by His Excellency Dr Abdulrahman A Al-Hamidy, Vice Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) ,to the Fifth Annual Gathering on “Compliance and anti-money laundering”, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Institute of Banking, Riyadh, 26–27 March 2013. *  *  *  Dear Audience, It gives me pleasure to welcome you all, and I would like to thank those who have participated in the preparation for this gathering. I also would like to extend my thanks to the colleagues at the Institute of Banking and the speakers to this gathering. Dear Audience, The continued holding of this gathering for the fifth year confirms the firm conviction held by all of us of the risks that the crime of money laundering poses to the global economy. It also reflects the Kingdom’s commitment to combat money laundering, and its support of the measures taken against it, and the implementation of the best international practices in this field. The discussion of this gathering derives its importance from the increasing trend towards globalization, easing restrictions on international cross-border movement of commodities and services and the revolution of communication and information technology. Dear Audience, Money laundering operations have witnessed a quantum leap at the global level over the last years. This was reflected in the various and diversified methods used in their implementation, expanding the volume this type of crime. Developed and developing countries suffer from this crime.