This paper discusses anti- money laundering regulation for virtual currency intermediaries, by showcasing and comparing regulatory models at the national and international levels.
In collaboration with the Basel Institute on Governance, the Competence Centre for Arbitration and Crime at the University of Basel is planning a high-level workshop that brings together arbitrators, lawyers, forensics, academics, students and representatives of NGOs from around the world.
Basel Institute senior advisor and former board member Hans-Peter Bauer presented at the Baltic AML Forum on 2 October on the topic of Country Risk Assessment - A Difficult Task.
The Forum was opened by the Lithuanian Minister of Finance and attended by 150 participants, who were mainly compliance officers and tech experts from Baltic-region banks, FinTech companies and cryptocurrency ventures.
In 2019, Estonia achieved the lowest risk score out of the 125 countries in the Public Edition of the Basel AML Index, 2.68 out of 10. In fact, Estonia has consistently been among the top performers since 2012, when the Basel AML index was first calculated.
During 2018 and 2019, the world has faced serious money laundering scandals involving reputable institutions. Surprisingly, abuses of financial systems were uncovered in countries that have low risk scores in the Basel AML Index, like Estonia and Sweden.
Falling rankings in the Basel AML Index, released today, show how many countries’ AML systems are a weak defence against today’s money laundering risks.
Ineffective anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems and lack of transparency are leaving the door open to increasingly sophisticated money laundering schemes.
In 2019, the world saw a significant number of money laundering scandals related to “Russian money” entering the financial markets of European countries, revealed through investigations by the OCCRP and other investigative media outlets.
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Landmark asset recovery case puts Peruvian non-conviction-based confiscation legislation to the test
A high-profile asset recovery case in Peru is putting the country’s new legislation on non-conviction-based confiscation (Extinción de Dominio) to the test.
The new Extinción de Dominio legislation, which roughly translates as "extinction of possession", allows stolen assets to be recovered even if the asset holder cannot formally be convicted of a crime. Introduced in August 2018, it enables the recovery of assets from foreign bank accounts whose owners, for example, are now dead or have absconded.
Oscar Solorzano, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist and Manager of the Basel Institute's regional office in Peru, emphasised that asset recovery should be elevated to a national priority in a high-level conference panel at the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 18 July 2019.
He was speaking alongside José Valencia, Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs (centre), and Gonzalo Salvador, Coordinador General de Asesoría Jurídica, responsible for coordinating legal advice within the Ministry (right).
The activities of the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) in 2018 continued to have impact across all aspects of our core mission: to enable partner countries to investigate complex cases of corruption and money laundering, send criminals to jail and recover stolen assets stashed abroad.