Search Results for: Lebanese

ISRAEL faces a particularly high terrorist-financing risk from outside its borders, while fraud, tax offences, organised crime, public sector corruption and the use of cash heighten domestic money laundering risks. The Israeli government has integrated these risks into its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) policies and laws.…

MONEY service businesses (MSBs) are having a tougher time operating in compliance with international AMF/CFT rules, especially those in emerging market countries, where they have to deal with a double challenge of tighter controls and derisking by banking partners.

MSBs throughout the Middle East, for instance, have been hit by derisking from correspondent banks as well as designations by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).…

TRADE-based money laundering (TBML) continues to be a complex typology that is tough for law enforcement to detect and ML regulators to control.

The risk is that with Iran being subject to new USA sanctions, the use of TBML is going to grow in the short term, warn experts.…

Paint markets throughout much of the Middle East are experiencing a downturn due to the region’s political instability and economic slowdown. However, manufacturers are nonetheless betting on a rebound as larger projects re-start and reconstruction begins in certain markets.

In the oil-based economies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, lower oil prices have hit government budgets, causing state-backed projects to be suspended or delayed, while having a knock-on effect on the wider economy.…

Egypt’s anti-money laundering AML regime is being undermined by the lack of an independent judiciary and the economically-active military increasingly above the law, despite reforms to the law governing an Administrative Control Authority charged with curbing corruption.

Another concern voiced by AML experts is the weakening of Central Bank of Egypt’ independence under the government of strongman President Abdel-Fattah Al Sisi, a former field marshal.…

Egypt’s attempts to crack down on corruption, commercial crime and money laundering are real. But they are being undermined by low existing standards, government authoritarianism and blind-eyes turned to military wrong-doing, anti-crime experts argue. Paul Cochrane reports.

The Egyptian government talks a good game when it comes to fighting financial crime.…

THE LEBANESE government has moved to ban the sale of certain Turkish products, including textile imports worth USD123.3 million a year, to protect local production.

However, Lebanon’s textile manufacturing sector is small, raising questions as to why Turkish textile imports should be banned.…

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty every Muslim should perform once in their lifetime. But with 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide and the Hajj only occurring over five days every year, the event is a logistical challenge for the Saudi Arabian government, tour operators, hospitality service providers, retailers and accountants.…

CONSUMERS do not like sales tax, and they are particularly sensitive to tax-based price increases when new taxes are introduced. So, it is maybe no surprise that personal care product sales in the Middle East have been dampened by the introduction of value added tax (VAT) in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January 2018, inflating beauty product prices.…

PANAMA has been reforming its anti-money laundering (AML) regulations at a rapid rate as it tries to change perceptions of the country as a hub of money laundering and tax evasion. However, with serious loopholes remaining and grave doubts over its lack of investigative capacity, it remains some way from shedding its unwanted reputation.…