Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said he welcomed the comments by Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the US committee over the progress made by Cyprus on issues of anti-money laundering (AML).

Heading a bipartisan delegation, Waters held contacts in Cyprus this week on AML issues.

In a statement issued after her contacts, Waters said she was “pleased to see that the close cooperation and coordination between the Republic of Cyprus and the United States is beginning to pay off”.

She added: “While I would like to see additional progress toward detecting and stopping illicit financial activity, our discussions and meetings with our Cypriot hosts, for which we are grateful, leave us confident that Cyprus is up to the challenge.”

Georgiades said this was recognition of the “considerable progress achieved” by Cyprus in recent years.

“Free from bad practises of the past, Cyprus is in a position to credibly cooperate with the international community and to face challenges in the field of combating money laundering,” Georgiades said in a written statement.

He said that the government and Cyprus’ commitment to promote further AML reforms “remains strong”.

Source: Financial Mirror