IIF Authors

Status: Will be live at 10/16/2019 09:27

The Global Framework for Fighting Financial Crime: Enhancing Effectiveness & Improving Outcomes

Despite tens of billions of dollars being invested in anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts worldwide, stemming the tide of economic crime remains incredibly challenging; the amount of money laundered globally each year is estimated to be 2% to 5% of global GDP, or between 715 billion and 1.87 trillion Euros.

In this white paper, the IIF and Deloitte argue that greater emphasis must be placed on improving the legal and regulatory framework and risk management toolkit to enhance effectiveness. Central to this reframing is the expansion of public-private partnerships (PPP) and expanding cross-border data exchange. The IIF and Deloitte encourage stakeholders to work together on greater regulatory clarity and consistent standards, pooling resources, and removing barriers to information sharing.  

The full set of recommendations made in the report include: 1) Systemic architectural improvements for financial crime risk management; 2) Advancing public/private sector cooperation; 3) Improving cross-border and domestic information sharing; 4) Improving the use and quality of data; 5) Reforming Suspicious Activity Reporting regimes; 6) Mitigating the inconsistent or incoherent implementation of financial crime compliance standards/guidance and providing regulatory clarity; and 7) Increasing and improving the use of technology to combat illicit finance.

The recommendations outlined in the white paper are the result of a collaboration between the IIF and Deloitte in which the organizations conducted research and interviews with private sector financial institutions and public sector authorities responsible for AML/CFT, and wider financial crime policy and enforcement across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.