Bank of Bermuda CEO Henry Smith will be delivering a special luncheon keynote address at the Institute for International Research's 12th annual anti-money laundering Audit and Compliance Forum on "Offshore Banking: Weighting Fact vs. Fiction."

With the passage of the US Patriot Act, all financial institutions are required to implement anti-money laundering compliance programmes to prevent international money laundering.

Many offshore jurisdictions are also passing legislation that will identify the methods used to launder money offshore and conduct cross-border due diligence.

According to Mr.Smith: "Money laundering and the criminal activity which drives it are global problems which require global solutions. We must move away from the perception that the offshore world is the root of the money laundering problem and explore opportunities for onshore and offshore institutions and authorities to work more closely together in search of solutions."

Also giving a keynote address is Jack Blum, Former Senior Investigator at the US Senate, and Partner at Lobel, Novins and Lamont. He will be speaking on "Money Laundering: Securities, Insurance and Other Non-Banking Industries Must Now Comply or Face the Consequences."

Anti Money Laundering Audit and Compliance Forum takes place September 18-20, 2002 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in New York City. It is presented by IIR in association with OffshoreAlert.