set out the measures national governments should take to implement effective anti - money laundering programs. the fatf works closely with other international bodies involved in fight against money laundering. and, one of those international organizations is the asia pacific group on money laundering ( the apg ) in which samoa is a member. the apg was officially established as an autonomous regional anti - money laundering body in february 1997 for asia and the pacific region at the fourth asia / pacific money laundering symposium in bangkok, thailand. this was the culmination of a process of “ awareness raising ” in the asia pacific region initiated by the fatf as part of its global strategy. to date, the apg has 39 member countries and a number of international and regional observers, including the united nations, the imf and the world bank. as a member of the apg, samoa is required to undertake a domestic review of its npo sector to determine the degree of vulnerability to money laundering and terrorist financing activities. i should stress that this workshop is part and parcel of such a review. under the conditions of membership, all apg members have committed to implement the fatf forty recommendations and nine special recommendations. special recommendation viii relates to non - profit organizations. srviii calls on all countries to “ review the adequacy of laws and regulations that relate to entities that can be abused for money laundering and financing of terrorism. non - profit organizations are particularly vulnerable and countries should ensure that they cannot be misused : i ) by terrorist organizations posing as legitimate entities ; ii ) to exploit legitimate entities as conduits for terrorist financing, including for the purpose of escaping asset freezing measures ; and iii ) to conceal or obscure the illegal diversion of funds intended for legitimate purposes to terrorist organizations. ” what is the scale of the problem? by its very nature, money laundering occurs outside of the normal range of economic statistics. nevertheless, as with other aspects of underground economic activity, rough estimates have been put forward to give some sense of the scale to the problem. the international monetary fund ( imf ), for example, has stated that the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between two to five percent of the world ’ s gross domestic products ( gdp ). and using latest statistics, these percentages would indicate that money laundering range between 2 to 3 trillion us dollars. the program a quick look at today ’ s workshop agenda indicates that you have an intensive program ahead of you. you will be covering a lot

: i am happy to assure the microfinance industry that the central bank will continue to initiate key reforms and structural changes that are necessary in the sector ’ s legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks. as you are aware, key among these legislative changes was the specific amendment to the microfinance act in january 2011 that introduced agency definition. the amendment anchored agency business in the law and, the central bank is in the process of designing guidelines to facilitate the contracting of agents to provide financial services on behalf of deposit taking microfinance institutions. the move will undoubtedly allow microfinance institutions to leverage on additional cost effective distribution channels to offer financial services. this initiative is informed by the need to leapfrog access to financial services to kenya ’ s bankable who remain totally outside the orbit of these services at affordable cost. ladies and gentlemen : another remarkable initiative in the pipeline is in the area of credit information sharing ( cis ) for microfinance institutions. as you are aware, the cis mechanism is already in place for commercial banks. the central bank is currently working on modalities of incorporating the deposit taking microfinance institutions into the cis mechanism. indeed, it is the government ’ s intention to create a framework whereby all financial institutions such as banks, deposit - taking microfinance institutions, sacco ’ s and other licensed credit providers will have access to and exchange credit information across the board. it is hoped that the merging of credit information from these various players will provide for a stronger credit market that will improve the pool of credible borrowers, decrease defaults, reduce credit costs and ultimately result in a stable financial sector. before i conclude, ladies and gentlemen, i would like to once again congratulate smep dtm for its achievement as a deposit taking microfinance institution. on its part, the central bank would like to assure smep and the industry and all the stakeholders of its continued support in the development of the microfinance industry and look forward to working collaboratively with the market to increase access to financial services in the country. the central bank is out to create strong financial institutions. indeed, the new constitution has provided us the wonderful space to create strong institutions. strong institutions both from the regulator and the regulated will support the market, define appropriate incentives ( and for a regulator, define appropriate penalties as well ) to encourage prudent behavior in the market. that is the way we can develop and deepen the financial market. with those few remarks, ladies and