The conference is a direct dialogue between the banking sectors in the U.S. and ‎MENA region with the objective to raise awareness of terrorist financing and ‎money laundering risks, facilitate a better understanding of effective practices ‎and programs to combat such risks, and strengthen implementation of effective ‎anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing controls.
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The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has hosted this conference in coordination ‎with the Union of Arab Banks, the Middle East/North Africa Financial Action Task ‎Force (MENA-FATF), and with the support of the American Bankers Association, the ‎Arab Bankers Association of North America, and the U.S. Department of the ‎Treasury.
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The event invited a diversified mix of speakers including central bank governors ‎and vice governors, senior policy makers and regulators, in addition to several ‎chairmen of Arab banks and senior American officials. The participants provided ‎insights into the latest developments related to AML/CFT issues.
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Speaking on OIB's presence at the conference, Abou-El-Fotouh remarked, 'The ‎invitation to take part in this important conference signifies the stand of OIB ‎as a leading bank in Oman. By way of example, I had the chance to illustrate how ‎the Bank protects itself from being exploited by criminals to carry out ‎suspicious activities.'
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He further added, 'I am also happy that representation from the banking sector ‎in the region was remarkable. We have focused on progress and challenges in the ‎institutional development and implementation of AML/CFT controls in the U.S. and ‎MENA banking sectors.'
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Abou-El-Fotouh further noted, 'the format for these sessions was largely ‎roundtable discussions which proved very efficient for building effective ‎dialogue with our counterparts from the U.S.'
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He concluded by saying, 'Despite the global effort and progress achieved to ‎deter money laundering, there is a considerable amount of work still to be done ‎in this area.'‎



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