RIYADH, Jan 28: In the wake of the increasing criticism of the financial institutions of the region in channelling funds to various ‘terrorist organisations,’ specially in the aftermath of the September 11 incidents, the first Asian regional conference on ways and means of combating money laundering got under way here on Monday.

The conference, organized by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), is to deliberate on exchanging information, ideas and expertise to combat fraud against financial institutions. More than 60 delegates from 18 Asian countries are participating in the three-day seminar. Some 180 international delegates from various law enforcing agencies and banking/financial institutions were expected to participate in the moot.

The conference was aimed at protecting financial institutions from fraud and boosting cooperation with the bodies concerned to assist in developing a regional vision so as to enable the regional financial institutions to combat money laundering.

Other subjects to be discussed during the meeting include cooperation and means of controlling economic crimes such as embezzlement, fraud and counterfeiting of currencies. This is the first ever such conference organized with the assistance of Interpol.

On the first day, Ali Al-Gaith, director, banking inspection department at SAMA spoke about the training needs of the candidates who carry out and conduct investigation of financial frauds. A Qatar Central Bank official briefed the conference about the measures taken by his bank to combat the financing of terrorist activities. Other subjects discussed included anti-money laundering legislation in Australia, the issue of money laundering and banking fraud and the problems faced by banking practitioners in this regard.

On Tuesday, an Interpol official was scheduled to discuss the important subject of an urgent need to reduce the legal, linguistic and the administrative obstacles in cooperation against financial crimes.

After their three-day deliberations, the conference was expected to chalk out a necessary action plan to combat the menace.

US delegations have in recent days been visiting some of the regional states including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to insure that no money flows into some of the ‘terrorist organizations,’ believed to be responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The financial system of these countries have been under focus these days and the Western media has been critical of their role on flow of money to these ‘suspected organizations’.

The Islamic charities contributing funds to various Islamic causes across the globe have also come under greater scrutiny and some criticism in the recent days from Western quarters.