Banks and Money Laundering: The Suspicious Transactions Reports Regime in the Fatfs Recommendations

The banking industry has long been the battleground between money launderers and law enforcement agencies. Money launderers have long and frequently misused banking products and services to launder the proceeds acquired through criminal activities. The need to curb the abuse of banking products and services led to law enforcement agencies initiating Anti-Money Laundering institutions to be utilized by the banking industry. It can often be a cat and mouse game between law enforcement agencies and money launderers, each trying to outwit the other. A new measure taken by the agencies to reduce criminal activities was the adoption of the Suspicious Transactions Reports. This book captures the current situation between the banking industry and its fight against money laundering. It examines the necessity and proportionality of the Financial Action Task Forces (FATF) global standards against money laundering; and analyses the Suspicious Transaction Reports regime and its subsequent recommendations.