PPPs crucial in combating financial crimes: QFIU panel

The Qatar Financial Information Unit (QFIU) has hosted a panel discussion, which tackled the role of private-public partnerships (PPPs) in helping curb financial crimes and illicit funding.
The event titled ‘PPP Toward Balancing the Needs of the Public and Private Sectors to Fight Financial Crime’ was held at the Ned Hotel Doha as part of QFIU’s prominent national role in combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
The panel featured Sheikh Ahmed Eid al-Thani, QFIU head; Xolisile Khanyile, chair of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units and director of the Financial Intelligence Centre of South Africa; Jerome Beaumont, executive secretary of Egmont Group; and Riadh al-Fayech, chief Financial Crime Compliance and Governance at QNB.
During the discussion, Sheikh Ahmed shared QFIU’s experience in PPPs, stressing the importance of this partnership in strengthening the financial crimes combating system.
Khanyile, on the other hand, discussed the South African Anti-Money Laundering Integrated Task Force (SAMLIT), while Beaumont highlighted PPPs in International Standards from the perspective of Egmont Group.
Al-Fayech elaborated on the advantages of PPPs and stressed that aside from traditional players, such as banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, more players like telecommunications firms, fintechs, and startups, have joined the fight against financial crimes.
In a statement, QFIU noted the significance of the panel discussion, saying it aims at strengthening PPPs against financial crime and provides a forum for the relevant Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) stakeholders, QFIU representatives, supervisory authorities, and the private sector to discuss and share experiences on matters of common concern involving money laundering and terrorism financing.
The panel discussion also examined the links between the public and private sectors in terms of accessing Financial intelligence (FININT) to protect the domestic and global economy and financial system, identifying the good practices and challenges in the area of sharing information between the two sectors, and proposing measures to develop effective PPPs.
Salem al-Kuwari, director of the Financial Crime Compliance Department at Qatar Central Bank (QCB), delivered a speech underlining QCB’s keenness to promote and maintain effective cooperation between the public and private sectors, and ensure the implementation by the financial institutions of QCB’s instructions in order to improve the reporting process and submit high-quality Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) to QFIU.