Through a glass, darkly

Timon Molloy, Editor (timon.molloy@informa.com).

AML/CFT supervisors – are they any good? This is the question HM Treasury began to ponder in 2009. No. 1 Horse Guards Road is a fairly erudite place, populated by doubtless brilliant if puzzled economists, but theory hits reality with predictable consistency in the financial crime sphere: Treasury mandarins are obliged to get their hands dirty with practical business detail virtually every time a European Directive and international sanctions programme hoves into view so one might imagine a sound critique of how the domestic regulators are doing would prove light relief. You would be right – but only about the lightness unfortunately.