Money Laundering Bulletin

Reporting by Timon Molloy.

Account-opening is often perceived as a paper-heavy procedure and obstructive to business but it is also acknowledged to be a vital, possibly the most important point of defence against money launderers. Alan Osborn looks at the training and supervision of staff who screen new customers and accounts in both in-house and outsourced functions.

MLB would like to thank Paula Nino and moneylaundering.com for their kind permission to attend this event. Reporting by Timon Molloy.

When people at dinner parties find out what I do for a living, writes Sue Grossey, they usually berate me for the fact that their law-abiding granny tried to open a bank account and was asked to provide a passport, or that their honest-as-the- day-is-long spouse was impertinently asked about their identity when taking out a joint mortgage. The under-current seems to be that things would be so much better without compliance, so let’s give it a go…

Ideally, police and other law enforcement officers working against money laundering and terrorist financing will combine the best elements of two different professions: the forensic skills of the conventional police detective and the expert knowledge of an experienced financial practitioner such as work in the larger banks and finance houses. In practice, most investigators have a background in law enforcement though this is not always the case and there are several different approaches to qualification as Alan Osborn discovers.

In spite of widespread poverty and corruption, Bangladesh is working hard to build a credible anti-money laundering regime. Paul Cochrane reports from Dhaka on the challenges, which include a large and evolving grey economy.

It is perhaps the ultimate irony in the anti-money laundering crusade, writes Andrew Cave. The industry, devoted as it is to the movement of cash and software algorithms that help track it, has no shortage of statistics detailing the numbers of suspicious transactions reported, illegal monies seized and criminals prosecuted. However, ask for a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the financial returns from the millions of pounds ploughed into the effort over recent years and what emerges instead are explanations of why their success or failure cannot be expressed in such simplistic terms.

The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 is now in force. It creates new powers for gathering and sharing information to fight terrorism, questioning terrorist suspects and prosecuting terrorist offences. Other stringent new provisions for combating terrorist financing and money laundering attracted little comment during the Bill’s progress but will have a significant impact upon the financial sector, write Louise Delahunty and Sara Morgan of Simmons and Simmons.