Hany Abou-El-Fotouh speaks at 2nd Annual Middle East Anti-Money Laundering Forum in Bahrain

The 2nd Middle East Anti-Money Laundering Forum, which concluded recently in Bahrain, has highlighted the need to ensure that financial institutions pursue more efforts to combat money laundering. Some 60 specialists from the GCC and Middle East countries took part in the three-day event. Hany Abou-El-Fotouh, Head of Compliance of Oman International Bank (OIB) has delivered a presentation at the forum.

Addressing the delegates, Abou-El-Fotouh said: we have agreed upon the importance of KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure. it is the due diligence and bank regulation that financial institutions must perform to identify their customers and ascertain relevant information pertinent to doing financial business with them

He further added: there is a genuine need for automated monitoring on an ongoing basus to detect the unusual transactions and activities. Regulators in several countries have made it mandatory for financial institutions to implement automated transaction monitoring systems. However, this technology does not substitute firsthand customer interaction.

He underscored the importance of adequate staffing: Financial institutions must ensure that their compliance units must have the adequate resources to receive, collate and analyze the transactions in a timely manner and file Suspicious Transaction Report to the competent authority.

Finally, Abou-El-Fotouh stressed the important role of on-going training on all aspects of money laundering control in order to ensure that all employees remain up to date with new developments in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Oman International Bank S.A.O.G came into existence on 1st January, 1984 and became the first 100% Omani owned commercial bank in the Sultanate of Oman.

We now have 82 branches in the country and 4 overseas branches at Mumbai and Cochi in India and Karachi & Lahore in Pakistan.
OIB is known as an innovative bank with a long list of firsts to its name, the first bank in the Gulf region to offer mobile banking service, the first Omani bank to issue a Visa Card, and the only bank in Oman currently offering unique Phone Banking service. Also being the only bank at present in Oman which enjoys the advantages of having a fully automated branch network

Hany Abou-El-Fotouh, CAMS
Assistant General Manager
Head of Compliance
Oman International Bank
Muscat , Oman
GSM:+968-99310274
TEL: +968-24682611
http://www.oiboman.com/

This release was published on openPR.