AML Perspectives – United Kingdom

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) completed an assessment of the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards in the United Kingdom (UK) in July 2007 (see Mutual Evaluation of the UK). Additional guidance is available from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), as well as the public accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

AML Perspectives – United States

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) completed an assessment of the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards in the United States (US) in June 2006 (see Mutual Evaluation of the US). Additional information and guidance is available from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the public accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the March 2007 article Suspicious Activity Reporting: Regulatory Change and the Role of Accountants.

AML Perspectives – Australia

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) completed an assessment of the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards in Australia in October 2005 (see Mutual Evaluation of Australia). Additional information and guidance is available from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), as well as the public accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Sanitized Money Laundering Cases

To show how complex and tangled money laundering schemes can be, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) has prepared a link chart of a money laundering case, with details changed or deleted for security and privacy reasons. The Egmont Group has also prepared a Library of Sanitized Cases, including a compilation of 100 sanitized cases on successes and learning moments in the fight against money laundering. (See How FINTRAC Builds a Case and Egmont Group – 100 Cases.)

About financial intelligence units

The Egmont Group is the coordinating body for the international group of financial intelligence units (FIUs). It was formed in 1995 to promote and enhance international cooperation in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. The Group, with a membership that has grown to more than one hundred FIUs, has recently taken an important step in establishing a new permanent Secretariat located in Toronto, Canada. (View the Egmont Group Financial Intelligence Units of the World.)

FATF - Money Laundering FAQ

How does fighting money laundering help fight crime? In law enforcement investigations into organized criminal activity, it is often the connections made through financial transaction records that allow hidden assets to be located and that establish the identity of the criminals and the criminal organization responsible. When criminal funds are derived from robbery, extortion, embezzlement or fraud, a money laundering investigation is frequently the only way to locate the stolen funds and restore them to the victims. Most importantly, however, targeting the money laundering aspect of criminal activity and depriving the criminal of his ill-gotten gains means hitting him where he is vulnerable. Without a usable profit, the criminal activity will not continue. (Read Money Laundering FAQ)

FINTRAC Annual Report 2007

The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, tabled in Parliament the 2007 Annual Report of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). The report highlights that the number of case disclosures FINTRAC issued this year rose by 15 per cent to 193. FINTRAC disclosures contain financial intelligence the Centre suspects would be relevant to investigations of money laundering, terrorist activity financing or other threats to the security of Canada.