Combating money laundering crimes and countering terrorism financing are among the priorities that the international society is seeking to achieve to protect the global financial system and counter risks that might obstruct the course of secure commercial transactions among countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, We are pleased to host this meeting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in pursuance of the Kingdom’s plans of sponsoring and supporting international and regional efforts in this area. The efforts, which were initiated at the early 09s, are promising to combat such risks by issuing laws and setting up measures and regulations that ensure monitoring activities and early detection and prevention of financial crimes and taking actions against perpetrators. This is clear evidence of the Kingdom’s compliance with the international community’s requirements in this respect. The Kingdom spares no effort in combating money laundering and terrorism financing, boosting the role and effectiveness of national agencies concerned with the systems related to combating such financial crimes to cope with international developments, and increase the level and effectiveness of appropriate agencies working in this field. It is worth mentioning here the approval by the Council of Ministers of updating the AML Law to fully comply with international requirements, especially with the assessment team’s recommendations stated in the Assessment Report on the Kingdom. This is a clear sign of the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ attention paid to compliance with combating money laundering and terrorism financing in line with international standards in this regards.

Dear Audience, The international, regional and national combined efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing are stringent evidence of combating those crimes and the consequent  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  economic, social and security risks they may cause. Accordingly, the Kingdom has supported efforts aimed at developing international frameworks capable of monitoring the global financial system to detect such offenses. The Kingdom is one of the countries that participated in and called for the creation of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force. It is still supporting all the efforts of the FATF and MENAFATF, whether through its permanent participation in work teams and supporting activities that enhance the work of the two entities or through its commitment to raise the level of its government organs, financial and non-financial institutions and making sure that its related laws are in line with the international requirements. In addition, it supports the IMF’s Technical Assistance Fund. Ladies and Gentlemen, To achieve our objective, we should work together to promote awareness of the gravity of such crimes and protect all segments of the society, its government organizations, and financial and non-financial institutions. In this aspect, I would like to refer to the recent FATF’s recommendations issued to strengthen the international efforts in the fight against this global scourge and make necessary adjustments to the systems and techniques of their detection and combating. On this occasion, I would like make reference to the results achieved by FATF, after reviewing and revising the recommendations.