(Bloomberg) -- A top US Treasury Department official heads to Australia next week as part of efforts to persuade global financial institutions to maintain ties with banks on islands in the Pacific Ocean despite the concerns around money-laundering and sanctions evasion.

Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson, who oversees the department’s office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, will co-host the Pacific Banking Forum in Brisbane with Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers on July 8-9. Officials want to hear from Pacific island banks that worry they’re losing contact with global financial networks as big banks cut ties.

Their concern is that major banks are severing relationships as part of so-called “de-risking” to comply with financial sanctions and cut down on money laundering. But leaving the islands’ financial world out of the broader US-dollar banking system hampers economic growth and creates a wider opening for sanctions evasions or other illicit financing by US adversaries. 

“Regional stability in the Pacific is important to our national security,” Nelson said in an interview ahead of his trip. Overall, the goal is “to really invest in and support the critical pipes that these countries will need to remain connected to the global financial system.”

Representatives from Citigroup Inc. and Australia’s ANZ banking group are expected to attend the meeting in Brisbane, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified as the plans are still being finalized. 

In a report last year, the Pacific Islands Forum warned that correspondent bank relationships were on the decline in Pacific islands such as Fiji, the Cook Islands and Kiribati, raising “grave concerns” about their citizens’ access to financial services.

Pacific island nations represent about $50 billion in aggregate global GDP but the US and its allies are also looking to counter a Chinese push to expand its influence in the region in recent years. Members of the Pacific Islands Forum signed a memorandum of understanding with US Treasury officials in March aimed at improving correspondent banking relationships.

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