An international group of private banks is pledging to step up the fight against terrorist financing.

In response to the September 11 attacks, the so-called Wolfsberg Group of international private banks has joined with Transparency International, a Berlin based non-governmental organization dedicated to increasing government accountability and curbing both international and national corruption; and their advisers, to develop a private sector initiative to promote the international fight against terrorism.

The Wolfsberg Group consists of: ABN Amro Bank NV; Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A.; Barclays Bank; Citibank, N.A.; Credit Suisse Group; Deutsche Bank AG; Goldman Sachs; HSBC; JPMorgan Private Bank; Société Générale; and UBS AG. The group was formed when they agreed to a set of global anti-money-laundering guidelines for international private banks a year ago.

Under the new initiative, all the banks of the Wolfsberg Group have declared that they are fully committed to support all local and international authorities in their tracing of terrorists as well as their associates and flow of funds. The banks have set up appropriate internal structures to aid this.

The Wolfsberg Principles will be reviewed by the end of this month to explicitly include terrorism as one of the serious offences under the policy. The banks have agreed that there is room for closer co-operation with regulators, law enforcement agencies, international police organisations and the private sector in the fight against serious crime which could also include the mutual sharing of more information.

The banks will schedule a follow-up meeting which will focus especially on common ground for intensified fight against international terrorism which may lead to joint initiatives and actions between the private and public sector. They also say that they welcome the idea that the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering should extend their anti-money laundering principles to the fight against international terrorism and offer their support as industry advisors.