US Treasury Joins Forces With Latin American Private Sector On Money Laundering

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

04 July 2006

The US Department of the Treasury last Thursday helped to launch a US-Latin America Private Sector Dialogue focused on strengthening defenses against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Fifty key US and Latin American private and public sector representatives held a roundtable at the Treasury, where they began discussing ways to facilitate and improve private sector information, and best practices sharing on the implementation of core anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) controls.

Through their discussion, roundtable participants agreed to commence a long term private sector dialogue on AML/CFT through a series of conferences, seminars and workshops that join US and Latin America banks in a direct exchange.

Based on the recent success of a March 2006 conference in Cairo to launch the US-Middle East/North Africa Private Sector Dialogue on AML/CFT (US-MENA PSD), Treasury officials are confident that a similarly successful initiative with Latin American counterparts can work.

"This Roundtable was a special opportunity to facilitate the beginning of a productive dialogue between US and Latin American banks about AML/CFT implementation, with the support and participation of the regulatory authorities. The Central Bank of Argentina is a true supporter of this initiative," announced Zenon Biagosch, Director and Vice Superintendent of the Central Bank of Argentina.

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