A newly formed industry working group on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing will help the banking sector meet new challenges in stopping such activities.

The group includes representatives from the Monetary Authority and the banking industry, and the authority's Deputy Chief Executive William Ryback is the chairman. The two industry associations have nominated 19 authorised institutions as group members.

Mr Ryback said although the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime in Hong Kong is strong, there is a need to guard against money launderers', criminals' and terrorists' use of the banking system.

Major functions

The group will perform the following functions:

*encourage the sharing of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing experiences and techniques among authorised institutions;

* provide industry feedback to the authority on the implementation of supervisory standards;

* promote industry standards and best practices on specific areas in which the industry may need more guidance; and

* raise the industry's and general public's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing awareness.