CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON FINANCIAL CRIME AND TERRORISM FINANCING

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 (Bernama) -- Against the backdrop of the current
economic crisis, it is important that corporations and financial institutions
further enhance vigilance, to ensure the financial system is not abused by
criminals.

Towards this end, the Compliance Officers Networking Group (CONG) and the
Institute of Bankers Malaysia (IBBM) will discuss this issue on April 16-17 at
the International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2009.

Themed, "Strengthening Vigilance During Turbulent Times", the conference is
jointly organised by IBBM and the CONG together with the Securities Industry
Development Corporation, the anti-money laundering (AML) Unit of the Royal
Malaysian Police and the Malaysian Institute of Insurance while supported by the
Financial Intelligence Unit of Bank Negara (Central Bank) Malaysia.

"Given the fact that these are susceptible times, we feel that it is
important for corporations and financial institutions to expand their resources
to ensure compliance, especially in respect of anti-money laundering and
combating the financing of terrorism or CFT," CONG's chairman, V.Maslamani told
Bernama in an interview recently.

"Our aim is to bring together international experts to dicuss the issue of
financial crime and terrorism financing, specifically to meet the needs of
commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies," he said.

The two-day conference is targeted to attract at least 350 participants with
about 120 from around the region.

The conference will also assemble 21 renowned speakers. One of them is
Kenneth Rijock, an expert in money laundering.He will share his thoughts on how
those involved in money laundering are able to beat the detection system
employed by financial institutions.

Other speakers include Richard Chalmers from the United Kingdom-based
Financial Services Authority, Dr Rohan Gunaratna (head of the International
Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore) and David Cope (vice-president in the Legal and
Compliance Department of Morgan Stanley.

Maslamani said with the increased focus on fighting money laundering and
terrorism financing,the conference would assist Malaysia in being proactive in
understanding global best practices related to the issue through the exchange of
knowledge and information.

Malaysia is ranked high among the nations in the region in having
implemented a comprehensive AML and CFT programme.

"Many large international financial institutions have faced harsh penalties
due to implementation issues or compliance failure in the recent years with
regards to the AML and CFT.

"We believe, the shared experiences at this conference will enable us to
avoid and mitigate these risks for Malaysian financial institutions," he
explained.
-- BERNAMA