Money Laundering Bulletin

Nowadays we take it for granted, writes Sue Grossey , but it was completely revolutionary – and even blasphemous – when Charles Darwin abandoned his theological training to study nature and in 1859 (coincidentally on the exact day on..

Is a level playing field possible in the diverse money transmitter sector and will HM Revenue & Customs have the resources to go after the non-compliant operators? Dominic Thorncroft , Chairman of the UK Money Transmitters Association (UKMTA) examines these and other concerns of money service businesses (MSBs).

Passports are widely used to prove identity. Unfortunately, says Robert Kearney of the UK Identity & Passport Service, there are thousands of lost, stolen or fake passports in circulation, which frequently feature in attempts to defraud financial institutions. The good news is that the Identity & Passport Service launched by the Passport Validation Service in 2006 is assisting both public and private sector to tackle this sort of fraud and identity theft.

Technology generates more technology. A mere decade ago, remembers Andrew Cave , the Internet had only just come into commercial use and many companies still didn’t have websites. Before then, money launderers got along fine without abusing online accounts, not to mention phishing for customer details and spoofing websites. MLROs had also managed without software devoted to online identity verification but the speed of commerce and real-time expectations of financial institutions mean a whole new subset of the anti-money laundering software industry has sprung up.

As anti-money laundering regulation becomes more complex and extends in scope to industries that never thought they would be covered, so the range of companies that offer transaction monitoring software has expanded accordingly, writes Andrew Cave. Huge sums are spent but is the investment worthwhile?

The regulated sector is still working out how to reach behind the corporate vehicles it has as customers to the ultimate beneficial owners. Malcolm Parker , International Programme Director, D&B UK & Ireland, looks at the identification and verification checks required and how external electronic databases can help.

Risk-based approach – a work in progress The Dutch were systematic in planning their capital – house-fronts onto the main canals were originally restricted to 30 feet in width; only the gables allowed for flourishes though somehow each..

UK£7million, the annual cost of administering the UK’s Suspicious Activity Reporting regime, is a “good spend” says Sir Stephen Lander, chairman of SOCA, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which houses the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), “It produces at least that return in terms of the effect on crime and terrorism.” He would like to see the figure rise to UK£10 million in order to maximise the benefits but much depends on the ‘police grant’, which must be set by 7 December. “So we should have an indication of our budget settlement by Christmas,” he told journalists at the launch of the first annual report to ministers on the SARs regime.