CONFIDENTIAL
Notes of SMA's Meeting with
機密
Representatives from American Consulate General held on 15.5.1989
Kobler,
The meeting was held at the request of Art Deputy Consul General at the American Consulate
General and the following were present:-
2-
Joseph Yam
Art Kobler
James Harris
Robert Taylor
Gerard Pascua
Stephen Ip
Secretary for Monetary Affairs (Ag)
Deputy Consul General
Country Attache-China Area, DEA
Consul
Consul
Deputy Secretary for Monetary
Affairs (1)
Kobler outlined the background to the Kerry Amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. He explained that the Amendment provided for international negotiations over a two-year period (from November 1988) for the purpose of (a) reaching international agreement to ensure that adequate records were kept in foreign financial institutions of substantial US currency transactions (over US$10,000) and (b) establishing a mechanism for making such records available to US law enforcement officials.
3.
SMA said that Hong Kong and the United States shared the
the commen objective of combatting money laundering although different approaches were adopted. He pointed out that Hong Kong had a long and distinguished tradition of co-operating with the US law enforcement agencies e.g. through the route of letters of request. To combat drug trafficking and money laundering, the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Bill 1989 had been introduced into the Legislative Council and the intention was to have it enacted during the current session, The Bill was based on the UK Drug Trafficking offences Act
Offences Act 1986 which had proved effective in combatting money laundering. It provided the authorities with formidable investigative powers to identify and seize the proceeds of drug trafficking. Authorised financial institutions were required under the Bill to report suspicious transactions and guidelines were being drawn up for this purpose. In addition, the Commissioner of Banking had also issued guidelines to financial institutions on the prevention of criminal use of the banking system for the purpose of money laundering.
CONFIDENTIAL
SP:6
9T-S
68.
£0 398d
機密
>K 3SNOH 1009
000