Mr Wilkins and the delegates are in Malaysia as part of the FATF high level mission to meet the senior Ministers, government officials and key agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police, the Attorney General’s Chambers, Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission, Royal Malaysia Custom and the Inland Revenue Board to assess the level of the country’s commitment in implementing the FATF standards to combat money laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. As the Competent Authority under the AMLATFA, we appreciate the opportunity given by the FATF to demonstrate our commitment in ensuring that our AML/CFT regime is effective. This International Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing (or IFCTF) Conference is the 6th public and private partnership initiatives conference conducted by CONG and the AIF. In the past 5 conferences, important building blocks have been put in place to raise awareness, develop understanding and nurture the commitment from the financial industry on pertinent areas in contributing to an effective anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in Malaysia. As we are aware, an effective AML/CFT regime requires strong collaboration and mutual trust between the public and the private sectors. Therefore, this conference provides the value added platform for the regulators, supervisors, industry players, government agencies and the public to build trust and greater understanding on latest development and initiatives, key issues and regulatory expectations on AML/CFT.

The feedback loop that exists would enable the institutions to keep the money laundering and terrorist financing risks assessment current and relevant. Finally, this in turn would be a source of valuable information to the authorities in conducting the national level money laundering and terrorist financing risks assessment. Comprehensive understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks should be translated into a comprehensive risk controls and mitigation. This is key in applying a risk-  8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  based approach in the implementation of preventive measures, where more focus should be channelled to high risk areas identified. The controls and measures should be applied across the overall compliance program, including oversight by management, customer due diligence, staff trainings and suspicious transactions reporting. Equally important, the risk controls and mitigation developed should be executable and applied religiously. To complement this, the policies and procedures should be tested and monitored, by independent parties to ensure its effectiveness and relevancy. Let me conclude my presentation today. The NRA is an important tool to facilitate our understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks facing the country. Understanding of risks is important as it set the foundation upon which our AML/CFT regime is implemented. For an AML/CFT regime to be effective, it has to target the resources and AML/CFT initiatives towards areas that pose the greatest risks. At the end of the day, the test is on how good we are in achieving the ultimate objective of an effective AML/CFT regime.