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Importance Of Anti-money laundering regulations In 2021

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Wade Williams

The formation of FATF in 1989 served as an eye-opener for several countries and organizations facing money laundering issues. FATF has been providing anti-money laundering regulations to different countries since then. The questions that pop up here are what are the anti-money laundering regulations, why we need AML compliance, what solutions we can get by getting AML compliance for our business, and how we can benefit by getting our business AML compliance. 

 

Money Laundering

To understand anti-money laundering we need to know more about money laundering. The process of converting black money earned by criminal activities(drug dealing, human trafficking, terrorism funding, etc.)into legitimate sources by misleading the authorities is called money laundering. Money laundering is a three-step process. The first step of the process is a placement where black money is placed in different institutions. The next step of the process is layering where several transactions are made so the legitimate source of the money can be disguised and the final step is integration where the black money is completely converted into white money and is ready to be used by the owner.

It harms the economy by disturbing the money cycle of a country or an organization. AML systems prevent such activities by providing more security from such fraudsters.

 

AML Systems

Anti-money laundering systems are based upon policies and technologies to keep a check on potentially fraudulent activities. These policies are called anti-money laundering regulations. Every country has its regulations following the 40 regulations provided by the Financial Action Task Force. These systems keep track of the scammers and fraudsters by verifying them through several databases like global watchlists, sanctions, and PEPs lists to do the filtering according to regulations provided by FATF or IMF. These systems can prevent money laundering or fraud using different methods including AML verifications(biometric verifications and 2FA etc) and AML monitoring etc. These systems coordinate with different financial institutions to keep a check on any suspicious financial activity. AML solutions provided by these systems play a great role in decreasing such activities.

 

What Is AML Compliance?

Although AML regulations vary from organization to organization, some policies are obligatory in all of them.

 

Policies

All companies need to fabricate their policies regarding AML compliance to overcome the risks of money laundering. The company also needs to decide whether they will develop an internal solution for AML screening or pick an AML screening software.    

 

Compliance Department And Officer

A separate compliance department is developed in the organization and an officer is hired with experience and in-depth knowledge of AML laws and company-specific policies. This officer is responsible for informing other departments regarding any updates in the screening process of the customers.

 

Employee Training

Employees are to be trained to tackle the situations where any customer will force them to make suspicious transactions. They should also be informed about the results of helping such customers.

 

Need Of AML Compliance And Its Importance

The main reason behind AML compliance in our business is the value it has returned to society. $32 billion have been levied by the regulators in AML related fines globally. It also prevents any reputational hazard to a company from happening through any kind of fraud or money laundering crisis. AML compliance can also reduce the expenses of a business trying to prevent any money laundering risks. 

Money launderers and fraudulent are not taking a rest due to which there is no stop to financial crimes. These criminals are getting cyber-enabled with technological advancement. In the UK only, around 80 billion pounds were cleared in 2017 alone. This means that getting AML compliance is more important than ever.

 

Effects Of Non-Compliance

Non-compliant organizations not only face the consequences of fines but it can also result in imprisonment for helping out the criminals whether it was intentional or not. Non-compliance can also result in the diminution of the reputation of the organization. Customers feel more secure when the organization is taking steps to prevent them from fraud. In case they are not taking steps on AML security, this will lead to loss of the clients and market value as well.  The organization will also be facing the loss of potential staff resulting in downtime and a decrease in productivity.

 

Conclusion

As technological advancement has provided a helping hand to the money launderers and criminals, it has also played a vital role in providing AML solutions to the companies fighting against such crimes. According to experts, analysts spent 80% of their time searching data instead of solving problems. Expert AML software using artificial intelligence has excelled in the process of screening the potential threats and eliminating them instead of facing severe consequences.

 

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