PARIS—Despite decades of action, the world is struggling to make gains in the war against money laundering, according to the head of the agency responsible for setting global anti-money laundering standards.
David Lewis, executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said governments were failing to stop organized criminals and corrupt regimes from washing vast sums each year, ICIJ.org reported.
Although most countries now have dedicated laws and regulations to combat money laundering, Lewis said, “They are rarely being used effectively, or to the extent that we would expect.”
Last month, FATF warned the coronavirus crisis was likely to present an opportunity for many criminals, and that some scammers were already duping individuals into making payments to fake charities, bogus medicine suppliers and sham investment firms, ICIJ.org noted.
Ten Years of Reports
Lewis’ criticisms of worldwide efforts to tackle dirty money are based on the last 10 years of FATF country-evaluation reports, each one providing a detailed assessment of whether a country’s banks, law enforcement agencies, law-makers and regulators are meeting international anti-money laundering standards and how effective they are at stopping illicit money, ICIJ.org said.
“I would sum up the results as ‘everyone is doing badly, but some are doing less badly than others,’” Lewis said. He added “there are signs of success in some countries and most now have the tools to do the job” and “we are seeing national efforts go in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go.”