Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFC) will play host to the first advanced financial crime prevention symposium and training course being held in the Middle East region.

The Doha symposium under the International Financial Crime Prevention & Compliance Training (IFCCT), comes after a series of highly successful events recently held in
the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

The five-day event, which begins at Sharq Village Hotel & Spa, Doha from May 18, is expected to draw participation from local and regional financial community.

IFCCT’s advanced financial crime prevention training programme has been created to help the financial services sector address and counter the unprecedented challenges faced by constantly evolving and ever more sophisticated forms of financial crime, said the organisers.

For those directly involved with AML and CFT, the challenge is compounded by the need to adapt internal practices and systems to comply with a raft of newly-enacted international legislation and directives designed to combat financial crime.

The Middle East Advanced Financial Crime Prevention and Compliance Training Course will specifically address current threats and operational issues regularly encountered by organisations based in the region, they said.

In addition to training provided by IFCCT’s renowned faculty, delegates will be addressed by Stuart Pearce, QFCA director general and CEO as well as many of the region’s leading experts, including top representatives from FATF, MenaFATF and the Islamic Financial Supervisory Board.

Peter Antell, managing director of IFCCT said, 'the region is experiencing unprecedented economic growth and it is an unfortunate fact that the greater the flows of capital, the greater the opportunities for malfeasance.'

'Regional banks and financial institutions can no longer afford to think locally. The corollary of this is that taking advantage of regional and international opportunities requires a change in working practice and compliance with an entirely new tranche of rules and regulations.'

'But being able to evidence compliance is simply not enough any more - acquiring the practical ability to anticipate organisational threats and to improve overall understanding of the strategic considerations that result in the improvement of internal systems is paramount.'

Pearce said the QFC's primary role was to establish a world-class legal and business environment in Qatar to attract the international finance industry, as well as the professional firms that support it, to set up operations locally.

'Integral to that is the need to adopt and apply best practice and ensure that the highest possible standards are achieved in the further development of Qatar's financial sector.'

'In this context we are delighted to host IFCCT's first Advanced Financial Crime Prevention symposium and training course in the Middle East, which we anticipate will help QFC licensed firms as well as other market participants to discuss global benchmarks and new developments in combating financial crime,' Pearce noted.-TradeArabia News Service