Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:57 AM

http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5095770/salameh-to-intensify-efforts-to-combat-money-laundering

April 27--BEIRUT -- Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh pledged Wednesday to intensify efforts to combat money laundering in Lebanon.

"The Central Bank of Lebanon will not spare any efforts in fighting money laundering in order to preserve the good reputation of the Lebanese banking sector," he said at the forum dubbed the "International Conference on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing."

Salameh's remarks came during the conference organized by the Central Bank and the Union of Arab Banks which was held at the Coral Beach Hotel in Beirut.

He said all countries were subject to money laundering and financing of terrorism activities. This is why, he added, the challenge is to find successful measures aimed at revealing those operations and preventing them from growing.

He noted that the Central Bank had overcome a number of obstacles, including the fact that in 2000 it had been put on the Financial Action Task Force's list of non-cooperating countries.

In 2001, Lebanon's name was taken off the FATF list after the Central Bank took measures to tighten banking supervision.

"The Central Bank took all the necessary measures to remove Lebanon from this blacklist," he said.

The governor added that the Central Bank was currently working on issuing a number of circulars pertaining to the work of exchange institutions (better known as combos) in Lebanon.

"This helps us preserve the good reputation of the Central Bank and prevent it from being used as a safe haven for money laundering," he said.