By: Moneer Al-Omari
According to economic experts, money laundering is among the risks that
afflict economies and, sometimes, leads to the collapse of economic
systems. However, the spread of this phenomenon is different from one
country to another.
Officials of the Yemeni Central Bank revealed that there had been 11
cases of money laundering in Yemen, two of which are now being looked
into by judiciary.
In a symposium that addressed the "Risks of Money Laundering on the
National Economy" and organized by the Economic Information and Studies
Center as well as the Banking Magazine, head of Information Collecting
Unit at the Central Bank Abdu Saif pointed out that there were just 11
cases of money laundering discovered over the last four years.
Saif revealed that one of these cases was receiving money from abroad
and another one was connected with drug smuggling, hinting that money
laundering activities are very limited in Yemen.
Meanwhile, several academics and economic researchers criticized the
lack of accurate statistics about money laundering cases in the country,
stressing that money laundering takes other forms like administrative
and financial corruption and pillage of lands.
The participants emphasized that money laundering, considered an
organized crime, is among the dangerous problems of this era, especially
under the globalization of economy. They demanded the different
economic, scientific, official, judicial parties and media to
collaborate efforts for combating money laundering.
In this regard, the Assistant Secretary General of CAC Bank for Banking
and Commercial Affairs Mohamed Ahmed Taqi asserted that his bank
directors have realized the problem right from the very beginning and
this made them establish a specialized unit for fighting money
laundering and published a book dealing with how to discover money
launderers.
The head of Economic Information and Studies Center mentioned that
developing countries are in a dire need for well-built legislations and
more transparency to deal with money laundering crimes. He hinted that
these crimes include corruption deals, bribery, betraying confidence and
arms trade.
For his part, the Chief Editor of Banking Magazine Mohammed Al-Zubairi
stressed the importance of working against money laundering. He
continued that all parties should play their role towards this crime,
maintaining that money laundering is an evil threatening the society.
Risks of money laundering
Abu Bakr Murshed Al-Zuhairi from Sana'a University noted, in his
presented paper, that money laundering is an organized crime and has a
dangerous effect on the financial and banking systems in particular and
the national economy in general.
Al-Zuhairi further revealed that money laundering will corrupt the
investing environment as it makes investors lose their trust in the
economic system and the legislations that organize investments. It also
creates a pushing environment for investments.
He continued that money laundering help corrupt companies to offer their
commodities and services at competitive prices and this badly affect the
companies that have serious investments.
Money laundering will cause capitals to run outside the country, which
causes the financial gap to widen and cause national capitals to seek
refuge in foreign banks, together with turning to unproductive
investments because money launderers focus on how to conceal their
dubious operations and the source of money.
Al-Zuhairi also added that money laundering will affect national
revenues as part of the national income is smuggled by launderers
outside the country, thus depriving the country from one source of
income under the tax evasion. This will cause devaluation of national
currency and increase in exchange rates.
Other risks of money laundering, according to Al-Zuhairi, include a
deficit in payments balance, devolution of national currency because
money launderers rely on foreign currencies to make it easy for them to
move it from country to another and this seriously threatens state
reserves of foreign currency and, sometimes, push them to ask for loans
to cover the finance gap resulting from money smuggling.
He also believes that money laundering causes interest rates to
increase. It also causes economic instability and hinders the
implementation of financial policies and affects the privatization
efforts, maintaining that other risks include increase in unemployment,
crime and corruption rates.
Central Bank efforts
The Central Bank of Yemen has always been trying over the last eight
years to combat terrorism through presenting complete lists to all
national banks and exchange companies including the names of terrorist
organizations or individuals.
It also gives information about these organizations and issues orders to
freeze their accounts and requests other banks to give regular reports
on their financial activities, together with organizing training
workshops and seminars to make bank employees aware of money laundering
processes.
Source:
http://www.yemenpost.net/58/Reports/20083.htm
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