Full Description
What are the criteria used by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the European Union to blacklist jurisdictions at high-risk of money laundering? What are the countries at highest risk according to Panama Papers and FinCEN files? Where do criminals move their illicit money, according to judicial and investigative evidence? This book answers these questions. It is an unprecedented study on the countries at highest risk of attracting money laundering and organised crime proceeds - and how they are identified as such by scholars, policy-makers and anti-money laundering (AML) practitioners. It targets an issue which is central to the policy debate, in the media, but is under-studied.
This book is divided into two parts. Part I discusses the concept of money laundering risk, its main determinants, and carries out a review of extant country ratings, ranging from official blacklists and grey lists, to media leaks and scholarly papers. Part II discusses the weaknesses and the myths behind the current ratings and proposes a new approach to assess the risk of money laundering across countries.
With a critical research perspective, empirically driven, this book aims to satisfy both scholars and students - in particular from criminology, economics, and international relations - and practitioners from banks, professional firms, and AML authorities.
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: Money laundering risk measures
Money laundering risk and determinants
Money laundering (and illicit financial flows)
Money laundering risk
Determinants of money laundering risk across countries: proximity, opacity, and security
Available measures of money laundering risk
Money laundering blacklists and grey lists
Origin and scope of anti-money laundering blacklists
The FATF blacklist and grey list
The US INCSR list
The European Union anti-money laundering blacklist
Blacklists and sanctions
Other lists of high-risk countries
Lists based on judicial investigations
Lists based on media investigations: from Panama Papers to FinCEN files
Lists based on financial/corporate data analyses
Lists based on crime data analyses
Composite indicators
Lists developed by banks and other obliged entities
Relations and underlying components of existing risk ratings
Summary: the gaps in existing risk ratings and blacklists
PART II: A New measurement approach
A new approach to identify countries at high-risk of money laundering
Rationale
Methodology and operationalisation
A practical application: money laundering risk from the perspective of Italy
Discussion and policy implications
Discussion
Policy implications
Limitations and future research directions
Appendix
References
Index
