Anti-money laundering laws – effective?
GAB | The Global Anticorruption Blog in its recent blog post, addresses the question that many of us have, are anti-money laundering laws effective. This article points out the issues that exist but the writers find “no evidence antimoney laundering laws have deterred the laundering of the proceeds of crime. For one reason, the U.S. and other wealthy countries, which pushed the poorer nations of the world to follow them in enacting complex, expensive AML controls, have failed to implement critical elements of the control system themselves (inclusion of lawyers and real estate professionals in the U.S. for example).” Additionally, poor countries have problems with the complexity of the needed structures, as well as being able to focus on these issues without external support. One other issue, which I also have seen, when working with less developed countries, the challenges of developing the requirements, as well as at the same time, trying to move forward on other anti-corruption reforms, is too costly and choices need to be made. In most instances it makes more sense to focus on simpler anti-corruption reforms, before moving on to anti-money laundering (AML) laws with the complex infrastructure that usually is needed.
Should anything be done? To be clear, anti-money laundering laws are very important tools, and should be bolstered and supported in most developed countries. It is incumbent upon the legislators and implementers to ensure that the necessary groups, including banks and enforcement groups, do their jobs, so as to be examples worldwide on how AML laws can work. Additionally, as always, transparency and publicity around these issues is key to keeping the pressure on banks and other groups which work in this area. This article highlights what isn’t working, but this is not the end of the line, just a reminder that this is difficult work, but does have an impact and needs support to continue.
Link:
https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2025/07/07/are-money-laundering-laws-of-any-value/