High-Tech Money Laundering Limited To Small Potatoes for Now, Panel

The United States and other governments have begun studying how money launderers could exploit new payment system technologies such as the Internet and electronic banking.

However, in a report on global money laundering trends released Thursday, the Financial Action Task Force, a 26-nation organization created by the G-7 group of industrialized countries, concluded that these technologies are currently limited to small, consumer transactions.

In other findings, the task force reported that drug trafficking remains the single largest generator of dirty cash but that nondrug-related crime such as fraud is growing quickly.

Also, heightened countermeasures by banks are driving criminals to launder money through currency smuggling and nonbank financial institutions.

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