Less Use of Cash Helps Counter Money Laundering: Experts

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, April 27, 2002

Less Use of Cash Helps Counter Money Laundering: Experts

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Using cards and cheques allows banks to trace and monitor the money flow and they may find signs of money laundering, said Nigel Morris-Cotterill, a British money-laundering expert, at a conference in Beijing on Friday.

"Untraceable cash creates more chances for money laundering," Cotterill said. He was invited by the Bank of China (BOC) to address a conference on countering money laundering.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Group Investigation Senior Manager Roger Chow defined money laundering as any process that conceals the source of illegal income and disguises that income to make it appear legitimate.

Multi-national banks were often caught out by money laundering and this resulted in the strict management of accounts, lending and investment businesses as well as clerk training, he told the conference.

China didn't face many problems in money laundering two decades ago since its financial system was generally separated from the international financial market.

But as the country has gradually opened its economy to the outside world, the possibility of money laundering has been increasing.

The BOC had realized this and was improving its anti-money laundering system in cooperation with its foreign counterparts, said Zhang Yanling, BOC deputy president.

Last June the BOC established an anti--money laundering commission headed by its president Liu Mingkang, the first in China's mainland.

"Money laundering arouses global attention especially after the September 11 terrorist attack in the United States and any bank should be ready for that if it intends to expand its international business," Cotterill said.

Chinese Minister of Finance Xiang Huaicheng also voiced his support for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism at the 65th meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Xiang hoped that the international community could fully incorporate the views of developing countries and allow their participation in the process of formulating rules and criteria in this field.

Han Zhubin, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate pledged to crack down on financial crimes especially money laundering this year in his working reports to the annual sessions of the National People's Congress earlier this year.

Different cultural backgrounds caused different problems for financial sectors in fighting money laundering, Cotterill said.

"The most urgent thing China should do is to standardise its nationwide financial systems, not only of banks but also other financial services dealing in cash," he added.

Cotterill also suggested that China provide more facilities for transferring money and paying by cheques or bank cards.

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