Hong Kong Monetary Authority had set up a banking industry working group on countering money laundering and terrorist financing issues, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Executive Director Simon Topping said Tuesday.

In his latest Viewpoint article published Thursday on the authority's website, Topping said the move showed Hong Kong's strong determination to guard against the abuse of its banking system.

To help deal with the difficult anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing issues from a practical perspective, and reflect business needs, the authority has recently co-ordinated the establishment of an industry working group, which includes representatives of 20 authorized institutions.

The group has met twice, and three user sub-groups have been formed to share experiences and consider the way forward in areas like the so-called "politically exposed people", terrorist financing, transaction monitoring systems and private banking issues.

The authority is also taking initiatives to reinforce the focus on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing issues, including issuing circulars and guidance to authorized institutions on combating the financing of weapons of mass destruction, conducting in-depth examinations of institutions' controls, and setting out the practices expected in high-risk areas such as correspondent banking, private banking and remittances, Topping said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)