Money Laundering | Legislation & International Cooperation

Legislation & International Cooperation

Several legislations have been passed in regards to the issue of money laundering. Some of these laws and legislations in various countries are discussed in this chapter.

Legislations against Money Laundering

Legislations in UK

Drug trafficking Offences (1988)
Criminal Justice (Consolidation) ( Scotland) Act (1995)
Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act (1995)
Criminal Justice Act (1988)
Criminal Justice (International Cooperation) Act (1990)

Legislations in US

The Bank Secrecy Act (1970)
Money Laundering Control Act (1986)
USA Patriot Act (2001)

BASEL Committee

Established at the end of 1974 by Central Bank Governors of G10 to address cross-border banking issues
Reports to G10 Governors/Heads of Supervision
Members are senior bank supervisors from G10, Luxembourg and Spain
Work undertaken through several working groups
Committee tries to address issues relevant for all jurisdictions worldwide
Core Principles Liaison Group (16 non-Committee jurisdictions, including India, IMF, World Bank)
Working Group on Capital
Regional groups
International Conference of Banking Supervisors (ICBS)
Participation in work of the Secretariat
Training, speeches, consultation

BASEL Principles

The Basel principles address the following four areas,

Customer Identification
Compliance with laws
Cooperation with law-enforcing agencies
Adherence to the Statement (i.e. the declaration made on Anti-money laundering)

Asia Pacific Group on money laundering (APG)

Asia Pacific Group on money laundering (APG) has been constituted to facilitate the adoption, implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted standards (such as those issued by FATF) against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Objectives

APG also assists its member jurisdictions to enact laws criminalizing the laundering of the proceeds of crime and dealing also with mutual legal assistance, confiscation, forfeiture and extradition.
APG also guides the member jurisdictions in setting up systems for reporting and investigating suspicious transactions and helps them in the establishment of financial intelligence units.

Presently there are 28 member jurisdictions in APG. Mutual evaluations are the primary means by which the APG monitors progress. Mutual evaluation is a mechanism of multilateral monitoring and peer review of the progress made by members in implementing the FATF Forty Recommendations. The process is designed to identify weaknesses in member jurisdictions and make appropriate recommendations with a view to improvement where they are not.

This module covers the following topics: