19 June 2002
To: Chief Executive of all authorized insurance institutions
carrying on long term business
Dear Sir/Madam,
The Financial Action Task Force has recently issued a Guidance for Financial Institutions in Detecting Terrorist Financing. A copy of the Guidance is enclosed for your reference.
The Guidance describes the general characteristics of terrorist financing and the risks that are posed to financial institutions. It also sets out case studies illustrating the manner in which law enforcement agencies were able to establish a terrorist financing link based on information reported by financial institutions. Annex 1 of the Guidance contains a list of characteristics of financial transactions that have been linked to terrorist activities in the past.
The list of characteristics is not exhaustive, and only meant to show the types of transactions that could be a cause for additional scrutiny. The list of characteristics should be taken into account by financial institutions along with other available information, e.g. the nature of the transaction itself, and the parties involved in the transaction, particularly when the individuals or entities appear on any current list of suspected terrorists.
It would be useful for you to adopt the Guidance as part of the training material for staff in the detection of suspicious transactions. You are also reminded that such transactions identified should be reported to the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit.
Yours sincerely,
(Benjamin Tang)
Commissioner of Insurance
The above materials are presented in PDF format, unless stated otherwise. Please download Adobe Reader for viewing. Install the Asian Font Pack if necessary.