A blog by Zisheng Xing, a law student at the Arizona State University who is undertaking a legal research internship at the Basel Institute on Governance.

A monumental anti-money laundering fine recently dropped in Australia, sending shockwaves throughout the gambling industry – a sector well-known for flying under the radar of anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations.

A joint blog by Kateryna Boguslavska, Basel Institute on Governance and Maria Nizzero, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Effectively tackling illicit finance and money laundering is crucial to the integrity not only of financial systems, but of democratic societies. And alongside fresh ideas and commitments on fighting financial crimes, we need faster progress on existing ones.

Progress in addressing money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks remains paralysed in many countries, according to the latest release of the Basel AML Index.

The Basel AML Index is an independent ranking that assesses countries’ ML/TF risks and capacity to counter them. It draws on 18 indicators in five domains measuring different factors that contribute to high ML/TF risks.

This quick guide explains the role of national risk assessments in addressing money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks.

It explains how national risk assessments are conducted, challenges in terms of methodology and data availability, and how well countries are doing at performing them.

NRAs are a critical element of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on ML/TF. They also provide data in special reports of the Basel AML Index.

The Basel Institute on Governance is offering a new Cryptocurrencies and Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Training course aimed at law enforcement officials, professionals in AML compliance and FinTech/RegTech fields, as well as policymakers and investigative journalists.

Delivered over four three-hour online sessions, the course covers the essentials of how to detect and prevent the use of virtual assets for illicit activities. 

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.