Where corruption is already rampant, a crisis makes it worse. There are flash floods of relief money landing in contexts where power is imbalanced, governance is weak and criminals already know how to game the system. But we can fight back by making anti-corruption an integral part of crisis relief efforts. Like emergencies in the past, the covid-19 pandemic demonstrates that anti-corruption is not just a nice-to-have but can really save lives.

Our Head of Compliance and Collective Action Gemma Aiolfi has turned her decades of experience in anti-corruption compliance and corporate governance into a practical guide for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As we have all become painfully aware, our lives can be brutally disrupted by animal-borne viruses like covid-19 that can sicken and kill people and devastate the global economy – in only seven months. We also know that the current pandemic is only the latest in a series of such wildlife-related diseases that are occurring more frequently and becoming more deadly.

Estamos encantados de haber firmado un Convenio de Cooperación Interinstitucional con la Procuraduría General del Estado del Perú. A continuación figura el discurso pronunciado por Gretta Fenner, Directora General del Basel Institute on Governance, en la ocasión de la ceremonia de suscripción del Convenio de Cooperación Interinstitucional el 29 de julio del 2020:

We are delighted to have signed a new framework agreement with Peru’s Special Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The Special Public Prosecutor’s Office (Procuraduría General del Estado del Perú) was established in 2019 as an independent authority within the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. In collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office, it is responsible for advancing prosecutions of offences where the Peruvian State is the victim, including corruption, money laundering and environmental crimes.

Kenyan officials working in the fields of anti-corruption, intelligence and financial investigation undertook a four-day intensive training programme on Advanced Operational Analysis last week.

Switzerland and Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) and National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding on the occasion of the visit of the Swiss President to Kyiv.

Formally signed on 21 July, the MoU is the basis for the continued engagement of our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) with these two Ukrainian institutions in the fight against corruption.

Our recently released 9th Basel AML Index reveals – disappointingly – that global money laundering risks remain high. The average risk score across all 141 countries in the Public Edition this year is 5.22, compared to 5.39 in 2019.

Few countries are making dramatic progress in addressing these risks. In fact, only six countries improved their risk scores by more than one point. 35 countries went backwards. 

Basel AML Index 2020: Weak oversight and dormant systems leave countries’ doors wide open to money laundering

Released today, the 9th Basel AML Index will disappoint anyone wishing for tangible progress in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world. 

The average ML/TF risk score across all 141 countries in the 2020 Public Edition of the Basel AML Index remains unacceptably high at 5.22 out of 10, where 10 equals maximum risk. In fact, only six countries improved their scores by more than one point. 35 countries went backwards.