BRUNEI Darussalam, through the Ministry of Finance, is tightening the security of its financial industry against money laundering and terrorist financing with a series of awareness seminars for financial institutions in the country.

The first seminar kicked off yesterday at the ministry headquarters, which was attended by banks, insurance companies, businesses dealing with money transactions such as remittance agencies and money changers.

During the seminar, officials from the ministry's Financial Institutions Division spelt out the regulatory framework and legal obligations pertaining to money laundering and terrorist financing.

The presentation yesterday revolved around the implementation of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation in Brunei Darussalam, with more institution specific talks scheduled over the next year.

The seminars are part of the ministry's efforts to actively ensure that financial institutions in the country comply fully with two regulations the Money Laundering Order and the Anti Terrorism Order, which were enacted in Brunei Darussalam in June 2000 and July 2002 respectively.

According to Hjh Rosni Hj Tungkat, the Director of Financial Institutions, more talks will be held in the near future.

"This (yesterday's seminar) is the first in a series of awareness seminars we will be conducting in this area and institution-specific seminars will be conducted for compliance officers progressively in 2008 to deal with institution specific rules that will be issued shortly," said Hajah Rosni.

A supervisory expert from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Joan de Zilva, said yesterday that while Brunei has a particularly strong and compliant financial system, with the core being banks, it is extremely important for the sultanate to maintain the status quo.

"Brunei is very lucky as it is a peaceful country and does not face problems with money laundering and terrorism. However, we must safeguard it from becoming a haven for the activities," said de Zilva.

The Brunei Times