US Treasury official: Cyprus has made huge progress in combating money laundering

Cyprus has made enormous progress in the fight against money laundering, said US Assistant Secretary for Combating Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea .
 
Mr.Billingslea met with Finance Minister Haris Georgiades, who noted that there is strong cooperation between the two countries and a common agenda for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
 
Today's meeting was the third between the two men and the second in a year.
 
"The work done by the government on the anti-money laundering front and on the (related) issues has been outstanding,"Billingslea said in a joint statement with Mr Georgiades.
 
"There has been tremendous progress and improvements made to the various laws and regulations and to the supervisory authorities," he added.
 
Referring to the Cypriot Minster, the US official also noted that "we greatly appreciate the close cooperation with you and your Ministry" and added that we look forward to maintaining and intensifying the relationship in the coming period.
 
In his own statements, Mr. Georgiades pointed out that this is the third meeting with Mr.Billingslea, that demonstrates a close and substantial cooperation between the two countries. Georgiades said that Cyprus and the US have excellent political relations "but I think we should do more and we can do more in expanding our economic and financial relations and that was the main subject of our discussions."
 
"We also know that we are facing common challenges, global challenges, combating money laundering and terrorist financing, this is an important task for both our governments, it is a major concern for the EU, the US and us and for this we have a very strong cooperation and promote a common agenda, "said Georgiades.
 
Finally, the Minister confirmed that these meerings would continue and that concrete proposals were discussed on how the two countries could work more effectively together.