South Korea, UK sign counter-money laundering pact
South Korea's head of the country's Financial Intelligence Unit met his UK counterpart and signed a memorandum of understanding.
Kim Gyu-bok, commissioner of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) and John Abbott, director general of Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) have entered into an agreement to exchange information about money laundering and to help train each other's staff. South Korea holds the joint presidency of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) which is an offshoot of the Financial Action Task Force. As a result, Kim will attend the FATF's plenary meeting in Paris next week.
Meanwhile, Abbott prepares to step down after five years at the helm of NCIS. Under his reign, NCIS has largely thrown off its down at heel heritage. It has new computers, it has developed software to help both financial institutions and enforcement agencies and is widely regarded as a model Financial Intelligence Unit. Abbott will retire early in 2003.
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