Insider / ΚΥΠΕ
The need to comply with the highest international standards in the fight against money laundering and the principles of transparency was underlined in forums recently co-organized by the Bank of Cyprus and the Cyprus Association of Administrative Services Companies (CYFA).
According to an announcement by the Bank of Cyprus, the forum on “Building sustainable international companies for the next decade” was welcomed by the Director of International Banking at the Bank of Cyprus, Haris Pistos, and the President of CYFA, Christoforos Koutourousis.
In his speech, Mr. Pistos stressed that for the success of an International Banking, specific goals must be set, while explaining the process of opening accounts, observing all the safeguards.
“It's time to start together as a team, with common goals to build together a sustainable International Banking for the next decade. “We can only achieve this when we all comply with the highest international AML standards, avoiding reputational risk and being reliable partners with correspondent Banks.”
He went on to announce that Bank of Cyprus is once again demonstrating its market leadership, this time as the first bank to set up an IBU Technology Hub to select Cyprus as its base.
In his speech, Mr. Koutourousis clarified that during the first decade of 2000, not only in terms of banks but also in terms of partners, the business model was not sustainable. “We have to ask ourselves how it can become sustainable for the future,” he said, explaining that “we need to restore our reputation as a destination for international business.” “And the only way we can achieve this is to become more ethical, transparent and efficient, thus approaching high quality investors.”
During the forum, Niki Charilaou, Director of the Financial Crime and Sanctions Compliance Department of the Bank of Cyprus spoke on 'Financial Crime Risk Management in a Digital Age' and Christos Michailidis, AML Quality & Control Director of the Banking Cyprus International Banking Division, on “Solving the KYC puzzle for sustainable business”.
