Marc van Teeseling, regional business development director at British IT services and software group Logica Plc, said he expected Asian financial houses to show increased awareness of money laundering -- disguising the origin and ownership of illicit funds by moving cash through a series of bank accounts.
"Previously, Asian banks were not pressed by regulators to focus on money laundering or freeze payments to parties involved, but after Sept. 11, the OFAC blacklist expanded to include more Asian organizations," he said, referring to the US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control, the money-laundering regulator.
Some Asian banks have already installed the company's HotScan product, which offers automated transaction scanning against a blacklist and audit trails, he said.
Current HotScan customers include the US Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch, Thailand's Bangkok Bank and Japan's Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.
"We expect every major financial institution in Asia -- including banks, broker dealers and fund management companies -- to want to have this technology in place within the next one to two years," said van Teeseling.
"Most Asian banks currently do not realize the seriousness of this issue and that they need to solve it. But there will be a new interest in applying such controls soon."
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