The 5th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies on 7-8 December 2021, co-organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, INTERPOL and Europol, saw several thousand participants from the public and private sectors gathering to exchange knowledge on virtual assets-based money laundering and related risks in the crypto sphere.
News
Mozambique’s tuna bonds scandal: yes it’s about money, but more than that – it’s about human lives
The so-called “tuna bond” corruption scandal in Mozambique has drawn international attention. Twenty people are facing corruption and money laundering charges in the country. Swiss bank Credit Suisse has agreed to pay USD 475 million in fines and write off USD 200 million in debt owed by Mozambique as part of a series of settlements with regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland for its role in the affair.
Registration is now open for the 5th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies on 7–8 December 2021. The virtual conference explores trends, strategies and tactics in tackling crimes involving virtual assets.
A joint initiative of the Basel Institute on Governance, INTERPOL and Europol, the annual event now draws hundreds of experts and interested parties from around the world.
This position paper by the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) outlines a set of features that GCFFC members recommend jurisdictions should include in beneficial ownership disclosure regimes.
To explore what is holding back progress in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world, the 2021 Basel AML Index report examined data on money laundering vulnerabilities beyond the financial sector. Banks and other financial institutions bear the brunt of anti-money laundering AML/CFT supervision and attention, but perhaps we're missing weaknesses elsewhere?
Our recently released Basel AML Index 2021 highlights how slow and ineffective implementation of beneficial ownership registries continues to provide safe havens for dirty money.
We argue that this is damaging for individual jurisdictions, but more importantly undermines all global efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). Excerpt from the full report:
Why do so many jurisdictions score so poorly for the effectiveness of their anti-money laundering systems? What's the biggest problem - prevention or enforcement? Answer from our Basel AML Index 2021 report: Ineffective systems are the general rule, but jurisdictions consistently score worse for prevention than for enforcement. Excerpt:
The Basel AML Index 10th Edition explore four aspects hindering the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). The first element crunched Financial Action Task Force (FATF) data on how jurisdictions are responding to money laundering threats related to virtual assets. The answer: not well at all. Excerpt from the full report:
The use of virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies is exploding – for legitimate as well as illicit purposes.
Publication
Basel AML Index 2021
This is the 10th Public Edition of the Basel AML Index.
The Basel AML Index is an independent annual ranking that assesses the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world.
Published by the Basel Institute on Governance since 2012, it provides risk scores based on data from 17 publicly available sources such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Transparency International, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. The risk scores cover five domains:
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s regional body in Latin America, GAFILAT, has welcomed our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) to join its Asset Recovery Network (Red de Recuperación de Activos del GAFILAT, or RRAG) as an observer member.