EastNets, a leading global provider of compliance and payments solutions, will discuss the implications of the new US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) at an upcoming summit in Hurghada, Egypt.

The FATCA-focused conference organised by the Union of Arab Banks is running from April 18 to 20.

FATCA, which came to effect on January 1, makes it compulsory for FFIs to collect, manage and report all information that could reasonably point to individual’s liability for US taxation to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Although the Act is intended to prevent tax evasion among US citizens living and working abroad, it has also been raising concerns among financial institutions that want to honor international policies and yet are hesitant to possibly compromise the confidentiality of client information.

The impact of FATCA will be widely felt across the financial industry with banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, investment funds, broker-dealers, custodians, intermediaries, and private equity firms all having to comply.

EastNets compliance expert Hazem Mulhim will deliver a lecture on FATCA and the compliance mechanisms involved. He will also touch upon the EastNets en.SafeWatch FATCA, a new specialised solution that enables foreign financial institutions (FFI) to comply with the Act using technology based on EastNets’ anti-money laundering solutions.

“FATCA is a ground-breaking law that intensifies global efforts against tax evasion, this new law is expected to cause some confusion and hesitancy among FFIs who will be obliged to comply with the law,” said Mulhim.

“The conference being organized by the Union of Arab Banks is an important platform for understanding the underpinnings of FATCA, its operational and legal implications, and the tools and processes available to ensure its proper implementation,” he added.

The en.SafeWatch FATCA solution determines missing information in customer databases and confirms adherence to FATCA stipulations. Powered by EastNets' proprietary reporting engine, en.SafeWatch FATCA automatically tracks and logs changes done to customer data meeting the US indicia and informs FFIs accordingly. The system also has IRS official reporting forms ready in place for declaration procedures. A major appeal of en.SafeWatch FATCA is its user-friendly configuration which does not require advanced IT skills.

EastNets can deploy en.SafeWatch FATCA as a Standalone Installation or as an add-on Feature Pack to en.SafeWatch Profiling, a watch-list filtering solution used by over 350 clients in 80 countries, a statement said. – TradeArabia News Service