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Publication
Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: A Practical Guide for Bank Supervisors
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)The COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis was a reminder, if any were needed, that criminal creativity thrives in times of chaos, exploiting people’s fears. Unsafe face masks, counterfeit drugs, and suspect medical equipment flooded the market, touted as miracle cures against the coronavirus by unscrupulous actors wanting to turn a quick profit. Companies with no record in health won big government contracts and, as people’s situation deteriorated, organized crime stepped in to lend a “helping hand” to those suffering financial distress. Where most people saw a global public health and economic crisis, criminals saw an opportunity. What this criminal behavior, indeed almost all financial economic crime, has in common is that the funds involved move through the formal financial system. The service providers that execute those transactions are in a good position to gather firsthand intelligence on what is happening. For this reason, banks and other financial institutions have anti-money-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations to find out who is paying whom and why and, if necessary, to alert the authorities. Financial institutions are the first line of defense against this criminal behavior; they are the gatekeepers to the international financial system. -
Publication
Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-07-30)The planet is becoming increasingly urban. In many ways, the urbanization wave and the unprecedented urban growth of the past 20 years have created a sense of urgency and an impetus for change. Some 54 percent of the world population—3.9 billion people—lives in urban areas today; thus, it has become clear that “business as usual” is no longer possible. This new configuration places great expectations on local governments. While central governments are subject to instability and political changes, local governments are seen as more inclined to stay the course. Because they are closer to the people, the voice of the people is more clearly heard for a truly democratic debate over the choice of neighborhood investments and city-wide policies and programs, as well as the decision process on the use of public funds and taxpayers’ money. In a context of skewed financial resources and complex urban challenges—which range from the provision of basic traditional municipal services to the “newer” agenda of social inclusion, economic development, city branding, emergency response, smart technologies, and green investment—more cities are searching for more effective and innovative ways to deal with new and old problems. Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments is at the heart of this debate. It recognizes the complex past, current, and future challenges that cities face and outlines a bottom-line, no-nonsense framework for data-based policy dialogue and action; a common language that, for the first time, helps connect the dots between public investments programming (Urban Audit/Self-Assessment) and financing (Municipal Finances Self-Assessment). It helps address two key questions, too often bypassed when it comes to municipal infrastructure and services financing: Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right? Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments offers a bit of everything for everyone. • Central governments will be attracted by the purposefulness and clarity of these tools, their impact on local government capacity and performance building, and how they improve the implementation of transformative actions for policy change. • City leaders and policy makers will find the sections on objectives and content instructive and informative, with each issue placed in its context, and strong connections between data and municipal action. • Municipal staff in charge of day-to-day management will find that the sections on tasks and the detailed step-by-step walk through the process give them the pragmatic knowhow that they need. • Cities’ partners—such as bilateral and multilateral agencies, banks and funds, utility companies, civil society, and private operators—will find the foundations for more effective collaborative partnerships. -
Publication
Combatting Cybercrime: Tools and Capacity Building for Emerging Economies
(Washington, DC: World Bank and United Nations, 2017-08)Advances in technologies over the last 20 years have affected virtually every aspect of the waywe live and conduct our daily lives. While these technologies have been a source of good and enabled social and economic progress around the world, hardly a day goes by without news of yet another cyberattack, or the use of technology in the commission of crime. Here, at the World Bank, we know that in order for technologies, including the internet, to continue to be used as a force for economic growth and development, measures must be taken to ensure the security of the internet and the data and communications that flow over it. This Toolkit, Combating Cybercrime: Tools and Capacity Building for Emerging Economies, aims at building capacity to combat cybercrime among policy-makers, legislators, public prosecutors and investigators, as well as among individuals and in civil society at large in developing countries by providing a synthesis of good practices in the policy, legal and criminal-justice aspects of the enabling environment necessary to combat cybercrime.