The last five years have seen immense growth in the Nigerian financial services sphere, particularly with the introduction of innovative ways to make, trade and exchange money in a largely unregulated sphere. One of such developments is virtual assets which has opened up a lot of doors in the...

Approximately sixty percent of German goods exports are transported via sea freight. The international shipping industry is dominated by firms registered in offshore centers with little transparency. Criminals feel invited to abuse these opaque constructions for laundering their illegally...

The banking sector of three Baltic countries, i.e., Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, was abused by money laundering scandals between 2018 and 2020. The Danske Bank scandal was the largest one and, combined with the other scandals, inevitably triggered a heavy critique of national anti-money...

The United Kingdom's (UK) property markets are thought to be a common destination for corrupt and criminal assets and money laundering, with investment often through offshore shell companies. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we study the impact of the introduction of a policy...

Digital credit has gained much attention from academic researchers, practitioners, and policymakers worldwide. This study empirically evaluates the determinants of digital credit using cross-country data from 2013 to 2019. The conventional ordinary least square regression with fixed effects...

Shell companies can be a legitimate entity but can also been used for illicit activities such as money laundering. Users of shell companies have included illegal arms dealers, drug cartels, terrorists and cyber-criminals, as well as legitimate businesses. To assist in distinguishing between...

The rapid evolution of global trade offers great productivity gains to participating countries but also raises the likelihood of losing domestic resources through trade-based money laundering. This paper empirically examined whether trade-based money laundering affects domestic resource...

This paper examines the role of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and compliance in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) in Canada. AML regulations establish guidelines for financial institutions to identify, prevent, and report suspicious activities. However,...

The rise in the volume of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) across the world is triggering calls from the Global South to mitigate the deleterious consequences of both IFFs and tax abuse on their economies. Using a Third World Approaches to International Law lens, this article analyses the politics...

Africa is one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the world, with its crypto transactions peaking at $20 billion per month in mid-2021, with Nigeria contributing to the world's third largest bitcoin-holding. Evidence continues to grow, showcasing criminals who seek to use cryptocurrencies...

Approximately sixty percent of German goods exports are transported via sea freight. The international shipping industry is dominated by firms registered in offshore centers with little transparency. Criminals feel invited to abuse these opaque constructions for laundering their illegally...

This paper aims to assess the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, including board members’ and audit committee members’ characteristics, particularly their independence, expertise in terms of finance and industry and efforts on the level of fraud and money laundering (ML) in financial...

This paper aims to assess the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, including board members' and audit committee members' characteristics, particularly their independence, expertise in terms of finance and industry and efforts on the level of fraud and money laundering (ML) in financial...

This paper is a systematic attempt to establish the effect of anti-money laundering (AML) systems on FDI flows across the globe. Complex and related hypotheses are tested using data from 2012 to 2018 across 165 economies across different continents, income levels, and regulatory environments....

Money laundering is one of the most important criminal offences today, perceived in thecontext of economic operation. Nevertheless, money laundering is a constantly changingphenomenon that is also influenced by the latest technological advancements. In this study,our aim is, after briefly...

Money laundering is the process of hiding or disguising the unlawful origin of property and hiding or disguising the true nature, origin, source, location, disposal, ownership or title of property. In other words, money laundering means "laundering" dirty money until it becomes clean. Corrupt...

Tighter money-laundering regulations in offshore financial havens may inadvertently spur incentives to launder money domestically. Our study exploits regulations targeting financially based money laundering in Caribbean jurisdictions to uncover the creation of front companies in the United...

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for a third of the countries on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. In the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) Ranking and Risk Assessment Tool, the region performed poorly in terms of resilience to ML/TF, with more than 60% of...

The current review systematically synthesizes existing literature to provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of financial crimes in Africa and their impact on economic growth. We adopted the PRISMA protocol to identify 128 papers from the Scopus database; which were analyzed using MS...

The first and second Eurojust meetings on Money Laundering and Asset Recovery took place on 19- 20 June 2023 and on 20-21 June 2024. The meetings brought together prosecutors specialised in asset recovery and tackling money laundering from the European Union and countries with liaison...

The rise in financial fraud has prompted regulatory proposals under the Payment Services Regulation in the form of a shared liability model provisioned under Article 59. The potential proposal by the European Parliament could now extend liability beyond Payment Service Providers to Electronic...

This study aims to assess the feasibility of providing a unique access point for competent authorities involved in the fight against money laundering and tax evasion to relevant asset registers in the EU Member States. The study first defines a list of assets relevant for money laundering and...

This study assesses the feasibility of setting up a single access point to relevant asset registries in the EU Member States for competent authorities involved in the fight against money laundering and tax evasion. It first defines the relevant assets for money laundering and tax evasion, maps...

The 2023 Investigations Activity Report highlights our commitment to integrity and transparency in all our activities. The European Investment Bank Group (EIB) is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and has a zero-tolerance policy for any prohibited conduct. The Group's...

This paper aims to examine the influence of controlling corruption, tax burden reduction, price stability and trade liberalization on trade-related illicit financial flows. The analysis focuses on a sample of 120 developing and emerging countries, drawn from data collected over the period...

This report summarizes findings and recommendations from a Fund CD mission in Uganda from August 28 to September 1, 2023, in response to a request from the Bank of Uganda (BoU), focusing on AML/CFT measures. Key areas of focus included reviewing the legal and regulatory frameworks, developing...

This paper uses the rare opportunity of the first ever criminal conviction in the UK of a bank for breaches of AML Regulations (NatWest) to examine the AML framework. The article investigates whether the current framework and enforcement are working in addressing the breaches. The article...