Egypt’s new central bank governor Mahmoud Abu Al Eyun and the heads of various Egyptian banks concluded their Monday meeting by enacting new measures to deprive terrorist networks of financial support, reports said.
An official statement by the banks said that the measures were aimed at money transfers abroad, AFP reported.
The new measures, which were approved by the banks, would cover transfers via banks and other specialist firms, it said, in order to block money movements to accounts covered by the UN Security Council resolution that followed the terror attacks in the US on Sept. 11, AFP said.
According to the Security Council press release, which was cited by the MENA news agency, the resolution obliges all states to act against alleged terrorist networks by depriving them of financial and logistical support, while warning those which did not cooperate with sanctions.
Since the second half of the current year, Egypt has been busy backing more resolutions to fight the money laundering, because an international watchdog group involved in the fight against dirty money added Egypt to its amended list of uncooperative countries.
In July, Mohammed Nooriddin, a banking expert, pointed out that the Egyptian monetary authorities had created rules and control measures to confront the problem.
“What we need is strict implementation of these rules,’’ said Nooriddin, adding that the most dangerous potential consequence for the national economy was the movement of laundered money in a way he described as “hot money.”
He said “hot money” entered the targeted country and then left, creating confusion in the markets and thereby disrupting them.
Observers said that money laundering in Egypt took place in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as via the stock market – Albawaba.com
