BAFT Releases Anti Money Laundering Paper

BAFT Releases Anti Money Laundering Paper

In response to what it calls a "trillion dollar problem", Washington D.C. based BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade) has released a 20-page paper entitled  "Combating Trade Based Money Laundering – Rethinking the Approach". On the heels of several other recent initiatives designed to combat trade based financial crime, the paper aims to bring external, or non-bank entities into the battle against trade based money laundering.

Looking Beyond the Bank

Among other things, the paper emphasizes that the responsibility of identifying and subsequently combatting trade based money laundering lies not only with bankers, but also with private and public non-bank stakeholders in international trade. Lauding the UK’s Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) as a successful public-private data sharing experiment, the BAFT paper suggests that further cooperation between banks, bankers associations, law enforcement and government agencies may hold the key to fighting trade based money laundering. Read the full paper here.

Fighting Trade Based Financial Crime - Resources

As the trade finance world becomes more and more aware of the sheer amount of losses incurred through trade based financial crime, the community is responding by producing increasingly better resources to combat it.

Recently, the London Institute of Banking & Finance (the organization responsible for the CDCS, CITF, and CDSG trade finance certifications) unveiled its new Certificate in Trade Finance Compliance, or CTFC.  Geared toward Trade Finance Operations Staff, Relationship Managers, Bank Audit and Compliance Staff, and Risk Managers, this professional certification program covers key areas in trade based financial crime, including:

• Anti Money Laundering
• Countering Terrorism Financing
• Sanctions & Anti Boycott Provisions
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Bribery & Corruption
• Commercial Fraud

Registration for the Certificate in Trade Finance Compliance can be found here.

This year, IIBLP released the first exhaustive guidebook on the subject, entitled Trade Based Financial Crime Compliance. Taking a comprehensive approach, this book approaches trade based financial crime from the ground up: establishing the fundamentals of trade, and working up to the various types of trade based crime, including practical solutions to navigating the tricky compliance landscape for compliance staff, bank managers, and practitioners. To learn more about this title and to purchase, click here.