GRAND CAYMAN, B.W.I. -- The United Nations Offshore Forum on international money laundering, hosted by the Government of the Cayman Islands, and which brought together some 100 participants from 45 jurisdictions, concluded here late Friday, with the issue of a communique, disseminated to the media at a Press conference held by Cayman's Financial Secretary, George McCarthy, and UN Spokesman of the Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), Mr.

Sandro Tucci.

The Offshore Forum is a new initiative within the UNODCCP Global Programme on Money Laundering. Its stated objective is to obtain global commitment to internationally accepted standards of financial regulation and anti-money laundering measures as they apply to the provision of cross-border financial services.

"From our perspective, broad agreement was reached between all the delegates to accept the standards presented to the forum,'' Mr. Tucci reported. Those standards embrace the promotion of a freer flow of information; the closing of loopholes in reporting systems; stricter "Know Your Customer'' measures; and improved enforcement to deal with money-laundering crimes.

To clarify, Mr. Tucci said that, as far as the United Nations was concerned, there were three kinds of money: The first was legal money, used legally, searching for additional yield; The second was money of legal origin used illegally (i.e. tax evasion); And the third was criminal money used illegally (i.e. money laundering).

"We (the UN) are after money of criminal origin, only,'' he emphasised.

Delegates, via the concluding communique agreed: the approach should be global; there should be proper recognition of the positive action already taken by many individual jurisdictions; Jurisdictions engaged in cross-border financial services would not seek business through the promotion of regulatory arbitrage, and, No sanctions should be imposed for non-compliance.

The Forum supported the UNODCCP objective of denying criminals access to global financial markets.

The next step in the process of the initiative, Mr. Tucci outlined, was for all international financial services centres to enter into -- by the end of September -- a commitment to the minimum standards outlined in the conference.

The ODCCP stands ready to provide technical assistance, wherever requested, to achieve the stated objectives, he added.

Discussions over the 2-day meeting here brought to light the following points: That high standards of financial regulation and anti-money laundering measures do not inhibit, but, in fact, encourage, the growth of business; The timetable for compliance will not, necessarily, be the same for all; Distinction should not be drawn between so-called on-shore and off-shore jurisdictions; There should be no barriers to the exchange of information necessary for effective financial regulation and anti-money laundering measures to be exercised on a global basis; That seized asset-sharing can be a strong incentive for cooperation, and, That preventive action is less costly and more effective than enforcement.

Some 36 of the 37 delegates to the Forum accepted the official communique; the sole objector was Panama, which said it could not agree to the document out of fear of contradiction to its constitution (for them, money-laundering applies only to narco-trafficking).

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