Publication: Lessons Learned from the First Generation of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessments
Loading...
Date
2023-10-19
ISSN
Published
2023-10-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report aims to guide the policy makers in World Bank client jurisdictions in continuously improving their assessments and understandings of money laundering and terrorist financing risks in their jurisdictions. To this end, the report attempts to draw lessons mainly from; Observations and experiences from more than 100 World Bank technical assistance projects that supported client jurisdictions’ National ML/TF Risk Assessments (NRAs); and An analysis of feedback on NRAs in 146 mutual evaluations conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF-style regional.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Celik, Kuntay. 2023. Lessons Learned from the First Generation of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessments. Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight - Finance. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40501 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism - A Comprehensive Training Guide : Workbook 7. Investigating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing(World Bank, 2009)"Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism: a Comprehensive Training Guide" is one of the products of the capacity enhancement program on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Funding of Terrorism (AML/CFT), which has been co-funded by the Governments of Sweden, Japan, Denmark, and Canada. The program offers countries the tools, skills, and knowledge to build and strengthen their institutional, legal, and regulatory frameworks to successfully implement their national action plan on these efforts. This workbook includes seven training course modules: effects on economic development and international standards (module one); legal requirements to meet international standards (module two); regulatory and institutional requirements for AML/CFT (module three a ); compliance requirements for financial institutions (module three b); building an effective financial intelligence unit (module four); domestic (interagency) and international cooperation (module five); combating the financing of terrorism(module six); and investigating money laundering and terrorist financing (module seven).Publication Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing : A Practical Guide for Bank Supervisors(World Bank, 2009-03-01)This book is specifically designed for bank supervisors, some of whom may be looking for ways to devise a program of anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervision. Others may have encountered difficulties in elements of their systems of supervision and are looking for alternatives. Supervisors may also come to recognize even more efficient ways to carry out AML/CFT supervision. The objective of this book is therefore to provide a "how to" reference for practitioners of financial regulation and supervision. The authors have attempted to conceive a practical guide, with the purpose of resolving strategic and operational supervisory issues. They cover the entire spectrum of supervision, ranging from supervision objectives to the design and carrying out of onsite and offsite inspection programs, and from cooperation with other domestic and international AML/CFT authorities to sanctions and enforcement. The international community recognizes that under-regulated or unsupervised entities have the potential to undermine confidence in financial markets and hamper economic recovery. Better transparency, enhanced oversight, and stronger cross border cooperation among regulators and supervisors in all areas of risks, including money laundering and terrorist financing, are necessary to ensure that financial institutions always remain sound, sustainable, and vigilant. This task is even greater during difficult times.Publication Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism : Republic of Uganda(Washington, DC, 2007-08)This assessment of the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime of Uganda was based on the 2003 Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering and the Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (FATF 40+9), and was prepared using the AML/CFT Methodology of 2004. During the mission, the assessment team met with officials and representatives of relevant government agencies and the private sector. This report provides a summary of the AML/CFT measures in place in Uganda as of the date of completion of the on-site the mission, February 23. 2005. After describing and analyzing those measures, it provides recommendations on how certain aspects of the system could be strengthened. It also sets out Uganda s levels of compliance with the FATF 40+9 Recommendations.Publication Integrity in Mobile Phone Financial Services : Measures for Mitigating Risks from Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This working paper explores strategies to identify and manage potential money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks in mobile financial services (m-FS). Using fieldwork in seven economies as a basis, the paper provides guidance on the best means of assessing perceived versus actual ML and TF risks, and then identifies specific measures to mitigate the actual risks. The paper concludes with recommendations that aim to promote a regulatory balance to foster an enabling environment for business while minimizing ML and TF risks that hinder its sustainability. The paper identifies four risk factors in m-FS and appropriate mitigation responses. The risk factors are anonymity, elusiveness, rapidity, and poor oversight. Anonymity is the risk of not knowing a customer's actual identity, and it can be diminished through enhanced know-your-customer procedures and identification tools. Elusiveness is the ability to disguise mobile transaction totals, origins, and destinations. It can be diminished through transaction limits and enhanced customer profiling, monitoring, and reporting. Rapidity is the speed with which illicit transactions can occur. Its risk is checked by flagging certain types of transactions and managing risks of third-party providers. The fourth type of risk is poor oversight, which can be mitigated by transparent guidelines on mobile services, clearer licensing, regulation of providers, and effective risk supervision within bank and non-bank m-FS providers.Publication Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing(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.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2014(Washington, DC, 2013-10-06)The past 25 years have witnessed unprecedented changes around the world—many of them for the better. Across the continents, many countries have embarked on a path of international integration, economic reform, technological modernization, and democratic participation. As a result, economies that had been stagnant for decades are growing, people whose families had suffered deprivation for generations are escaping poverty, and hundreds of millions are enjoying the benefits of improved living standards and scientific and cultural sharing across nations. As the world changes, a host of opportunities arise constantly. With them, however, appear old and new risks, from the possibility of job loss and disease to the potential for social unrest and environmental damage. If ignored, these risks can turn into crises that reverse hard-won gains and endanger the social and economic reforms that produced these gains. The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development, contends that the solution is not to reject change in order to avoid risk but to prepare for the opportunities and risks that change entails. Managing risks responsibly and effectively has the potential to bring about security and a means of progress for people in developing countries and beyond. Although individuals’ own efforts, initiative, and responsibility are essential for managing risk, their success will be limited without a supportive social environment—especially when risks are large or systemic in nature. The WDR 2014 argues that people can successfully confront risks that are beyond their means by sharing their risk management with others. This can be done through naturally occurring social and economic systems that enable people to overcome the obstacles that individuals and groups face, including lack of resources and information, cognitive and behavioral failures, missing markets and public goods, and social externalities and exclusion. These systems—from the household and the community to the state and the international community—have the potential to support people’s risk management in different yet complementary ways. The Report focuses on some of the most pressing questions policy makers are asking. What role should the state take in helping people manage risks? When should this role consist of direct interventions, and when should it consist of providing an enabling environment? How can governments improve their own risk management, and what happens when they fail or lack capacity, as in many fragile and conflict-affected states? Through what mechanisms can risk management be mainstreamed into the development agenda? And how can collective action failures to manage systemic risks be addressed, especially those with irreversible consequences? The WDR 2014 provides policy makers with insights and recommendations to address these difficult questions. It should serve to guide the dialogue, operations, and contributions from key development actors—from civil society and national governments to the donor community and international development organizations.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Interoperability Between Central Bank Digital Currency Systems and Fast Payment Systems(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-02)Central banks around the world are actively researching and investigating the benefits, challenges, and design options of wholesale and retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Since CBDCs are one of the most critical components of a national payment system (NPS), it is important that their interoperability with other payment systems is one of the key considerations in the design process. The ITS Technology and Innovation (ITSI) team, in collaboration with the World Banks’s Finance Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice, has conducted technology design experiments on two specific scenarios regarding CBDC system interoperability with fast payment systems (FPS). In the first scenario, the experiment investigated the option of settling FPS obligations in a wholesale CBDC system, including the option to reserve funds to guarantee the settlement of FPS net obligations. In the second scenario, the team investigated the interoperability between users within the FPS and retail CBDC users, including the transfer of funds among both types of users, using common services such as address resolution services. This experiment illustrated how CBDC systems can interoperate with retail payment systems through an interlinking bridge that was used to route messages and application programming interface (API) calls among different systems. The programmability features of distributed ledge technology (DLT) were used to link the settlement in CBDC to the transfer of funds in the FPS. The technical applicability for this type of interoperability was demonstrated through the experiments, with the caveat that these experiments do not take into account complexities that may be involved with live systems.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.