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Published: Tuesday August 21, 2012 MYT 11:19:00 AM

IFCTF to address insurance fraud, cyber secruity issues


KUALA LUMPUR: The International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2012 (IFCTF 2012), to be held next month, will address cyber security issues as well as insurance fraud.

Chairman Mad Yusof Yazid said the inclusion of cyber security into the conference was due to the growing threat especially of Internet scams in the country involving financial institutions.

"There are a lot of Internet scams currently happening in Malaysia, therefore, we want to create the awareness on how these scams happen," he told Bernama in an interview recently.

Mad Yusof, who is also chairman of Compliance Officers' Networking Group (CONG), the organiser of the IFCTF, said Internet scam is something that is fast moving and takes only seconds to be executed, thus making the awareness of the session critical.

He said the organiser is trying to get a reformed hacker from the United States to speak on the last day of the conference, to explain the operations of the hackers, as well as other speakers who can share best practices to prevent these from happening in Malaysia.

Chairman of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi, will moderate the session, he added.

Meanwhile, he said the inclusion of insurance fraud into the programme was due to the demand from many parties.

"The inclusion of insurance fraud will give a better scope and coverage of the financial sectors as the insurance sector is another growing area of fraud and potential anti-money laundering target," he said.

It would also increase the industry awareness towards insurance fraud and threat and able to share the best practices from other parts of the world in terms of managing and detecting fraud and money laundering.

During the event, he said there would also be a session to discuss the implementation of the new guidelines by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

"It will be a good avenue for the regulators and also the banks to actually to understand how the new recommendations will affect us and find the best way to execute it, he said.

On Feb 16, 2012, the FATF issued revised guidelines to strengthen global safeguards and further protect the integrity of the financial system by providing governments with stronger tools to take action against financial crime.

Four key issues addressed by the guidelines were financing of proliferation, corruption and politically exposed persons, tax crimes and terrorist financing.

Organised since 2009, the fourth edition of IFCTF will see the collaboration between CONG and Asian Institute of Finance (AIF), apart from Institute of Bankers Malaysia (IBBM), the partner for the past three events.

"The reason is because CONG believe that we want to cut across the financial sector for this year's event, which include conventional banking, Islamic finance, capital market, insurance and cyber security," he said.

He said the effort is a sequel in collaborative initiative within the private and public sector for capacity building for anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorist compliance.

To be held on Sept 24-25, 2012, the conference is targeting 450 to 600 delegates from the private and public sectors, government bodies, policymakers, regulators and foreign and local universities.

CONG has invited up to 40 speakers to give presentations including prominent figures from the World Bank, Asia Pacific Group (APG), Austrac Australia, Royal Customs of United Kingdom, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Royal Malaysian Customs, Security Commission, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, representatives from universities and notable compliance officers from other parts of the world such as Hong Kong.

Mad Yusof said since its inception in 2009, the conference has helped to upskill the knowledge and capabilities of the compliance officers in Malaysia and increased the level of understanding from the other parts of the world that can bring value-added knowledge in their day-to-day duties.

He said the efforts by CONG has also lifted Malaysia's image in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

"Malaysia has been put to a level whereby execution and commitment by the private and public sector is actually encouraging," he said.

In the fourth edition of IFCTF, he said the organiser has set the theme "Compliance, Challenges and Effectiveness: The Next Level" as a continuance from the previous edition's "Raising The Bar In Compliance And Enforcement".

"For the past three years, we are emphasising more on awareness and creating some level of understanding.

"This year, we want to move to the next level and actually measure the effectiveness of what we have done as well as preparing Malaysia for assessment by international bodies such as the World Bank, APG and International Monetary Fund.

He said during the assessment, latest by 2014, the evaluators will look at the effectiveness of the country in executing anti-money laundering efforts.

Moving forward, he said the organisation is aiming to form an association participated by all compliance officers in Malaysia called Compliance Malaysian Chapter next year.

He said even though there are individual association currently representing various sectors such as the capital market, insurance, banking and Islamic finance, CONG wants to unify the association under one roof so that they have the same level of understanding.

"Being together, we will be more robust and aggressive in executing the compliance function," Mad Yusof said.

Supported by BNM, CONG also collaborated with Islamic Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia (IBFIM), Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII), Security Industry Development Corporation (SIDC), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM), Asociation of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), Royal Police, Association of Stockbroking Companies Malaysia (ASCM) and CyberSecurity Malaysia. - Bernama

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