It has been widely accepted that the banking industry is highly dependent on information technology (IT). Due to its pervasiveness and intertwining nature in most aspects of banking business, IT has also significantly become one of the critical components that facilitate the ability of banking institutions to meet regulatory requirements in an efficient and a cost-effective way. For instance, in the effort to mitigate the activities of money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF), various information on banking customers are timely and accurately gathered and analysed through automation. Furthermore, in many instances, IT systems exclusively built to achieve a similar objective are frequently established, and comparable to most IT implementations in the banking institutions, they are often can be equally regarded as a significant investment as well. Viewed from the longstanding debate on the value of IT investments to organisations, empirical research within the IS domain seemed to have placed less emphasis on the possible contribution of regulatory IT implementations. While it is easy to conceive that these IT deployments were never intended to directly benefit banking business from the outset, a study from this perspective should not be disregarded, but instead, warrant to be equally explored. The rationale for this statement can be attributed to the aforementioned assertion regarding the potentially substantial monetary investments required. In addition to this, it may also be due to the high tendency of stringent regulations being enforced in the future, and hence, could inevitably place a significant demand on organisational resources, and further influence their associated opportunity costs. For that reason, this study has attempted to fill the identified research gaps by conducting an investigation from the standpoint of a topical issue regarding anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT) implementation efforts within banking institutions. Utilising a conceptual framework that leverages the resource-based view (RBV) to structurally analyse a list of research objectives, empirical evidence of business benefits and the associated capabilities through organisational AML/CFT efforts have indeed been discovered. The benefits are particularly in the form of having the opportunity to leverage various information and infrastructure that were established for regulatory purposes. Further evidence has also suggested that selected AML/CFT alerts have the potential of providing unique opportunity for the organisation to trigger time-critical event-based marketing activities, resulting in a possible improved competitive positioning (ICP). Importantly, by appreciating the insights obtained through the research, a conceptual framework is proposed, which may aid to structurally assess the possible benefits of any organisational regulatory IT implementations.

In 2015, the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) and the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria launched a project to identify the links between corruption, money laundering and tax crimes in Africa. The project promotes the concepts of good tax governance and the importance to economic development of a tax system that is transparent and free of corruption. The project explores how law enforcement agencies and tax authorities can best cooperate to counter corruption and bribery. The project was initially aimed at three focus countries, namely, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, but soon was extended to other African countries. This is a joint initiative with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and is also supported by the World Bank. This book brings together a series of background papers prepared for the Conference on Inter-Agency Co-operation and Good Tax Governance in Africa held at the University of Pretoria in July 2016. After a rigorous double peer-review process, the papers were revised by the authors. We express our gratitude to and acknowledge the services of the following peer reviewers: Tom Balco; Carika Fritz; Leon Gerber; Willem Jacobs; Benjamin Kujinga; Thabo Legwaila; Annet Oguttu; Dirk Scholtz; David Solomon; and Xeniya Yeroshenko. Finally, we express our sincere gratitude to all the research and administrative assistants who contributed to the Good Tax Governance in Africa Project. This book pays tribute to their efforts. Jeffrey Owens, Rick McDonell, Riël Franzsen and Jude Amos (Vienna and Pretoria, November 2017)

Magister Legum - LLM / Money laundering is a global problem that has adverse effects on both the developed and developing countries. If unchecked, it accelerates crime and criminal activities, affects the economy, undermines the integrity of financial markets, undermines the legitimate private sector, causes loss of revenue, poses security threats to privatisation efforts and brings about reputational risks as well as social costs.1 Given the transnational and cross-border nature of money laundering, the fight against it is global. This is why in 1989 the G72 countries decided to set up the FATF3 as a global standard-setting body for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and combating of terrorist financing (CFT). The FATF has since developed standards for countries across the globe to adopt so as to facilitate this global fight. The standards are in the form of recommendations, and so far there are Forty Recommendations on money laundering (hereafter referred so as the Recommendations), Eight Special Recommendations on CFT, and a Ninth Special Recommendation on cash-couriers. In order to enhance its work and the adoption of its Recommendations, the FATF has also facilitated the establishment of FATF- styled regional bodies (hereinafter referred to as FSRBs) across the world. One such group is ESAAMLG, which was established in 1999. Its mandate is to coordinate and guide its member countries in the implementation of the Recommendations and guidelines. Currently, it has 15 member countries.8 Over the first ten years of its existence, among other things, ESAAMLG has through its members, achieved the following in its mandate: all members except Uganda have enacted AML legislation and some have set up structures that are essential for the implementation of the Recommendations Despite the above-mentioned achievements, the overall implementation of the Recommendations has been generally slow and low. Most of the member countries have not yet enforced their enacted AML legislation as evidenced by low rate of money laundering prosecutions in the region. Some have not yet established financial intelligence Units (FIUs) nor ratified or domesticated important AML related international legal instruments, let alone train personnel adequately. The international instruments comprise the 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (Palermo Convention) and the1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Vienna Convention). There are also inordinate delays in the passing of AML legislation as well as the amendment of other domestic legislation, which is necessary in order to harmonise such laws with the AML standards. This gives rise to unevenness, disconnectedness and time variability in the implementation of the Recommendations among the member countries. The main question this paper seeks to answer is this: Are there obstacles to the implementation of the Recommendations in Eastern and Southern Africa?

La mondialisation des échanges, générant un accroissement des volumes de transactions financières, a été accompagnée par une mondialisation des activités criminelles. Les techniques de blanchiment se sont adaptées à cette réalité économique. La lutte anti-blanchiment est intrinsèquement un sujet complexe qui a mobilisé une volonté d’architecture ouverte entre les acteurs publics et une interdépendance entre les régulateurs et les institutions financières. Son objectif est de viser l’action des organisations criminelles transnationales qui ont su tirer profit de la congruence entre la sophistication financière et l’ère du numérique. La réglementation de ces dernières années, concernant la lutte anti-blanchiment d’argent et lutte contre le financement du terrorisme, a mis en relief l’émergence du droit souple avec, parallèlement, un changement paradigmatique pour les institutions financières qui se retrouvent désormais à appliquer des normes restrictives émanant du législateur et d’appliquer des normes de contrainte, ou incitatives, provenant de différentes autorités de régulation, générant parfois une perception de superposition réglementaire. Insérées dans le dispositif mondial de lutte anti blanchiment, les institutions financières doivent s’adapter cette inflation réglementaire qui persiste depuis plusieurs années. Ce changement de texture normative se caractérise par une combinaison de ces différents droits dont le mouvement ne cesse de se prolonger avec le droit de la régulation bancaire et financière. Ce droit de la régulation bancaire et financière invite les institutions financières à adopter une certaine élasticité dans la mise en place des dispositifs de conformité permettant la mise en oeuvre d’outils systémiques face à une complexité endémique de la délinquance financière. La mondialisation de la criminalité financière appelle à la nécessité de la mondialisation du droit via un système de contrôle adapté de la part des acteurs de la finance. Dans ce contexte, le juriste en conformité voit ses prérogatives revisitées et sa perception bouleversée par ce mouvement de plaque tectonique réglementaire. / Globalization of trade and financial transactions have been followed by globalization of financial crime.Money laundering techniques have converged in light of this economic reality. Anti-Money laundering is considered like a complex topic wich includes interaction between regulator bodies and financial institutions. It aims to counter international criminal transactions taking advantage of financial innovation and digital evolution. The anti-money laundering regulation of recents years highlights soft law wich results new normative paradigm producing regulatory overlay.Inserted in anti-money laundering worldwide program, financial institutions have to deal with regulatory inflation that has lasted for several years. This normative mutation is defined by different laws combination whose movement continues to grow with banking and financial regulatory. This banking and financial regulatory requires financial institutions to put in place a flexibility compliance program with systemic tools to cope with white-collar complexity environment. Financial crime globalization needs globalization law and regulation wich uses financial institutions monitoring system. In this context, the compliance lawyer must adapt his perception and mission with respect to tectonic plate regulation movement.

Money laundering is believed to have been around since the introduction of money. It is a vast, international problem which challenges law enforcement agencies and legislating authorities, as well as financial institutions and organizations of interest, all over the world. The past few years, something new has snuck up on law enforcement agencies and legislating authorities, namely Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. This has caused a number of reactions, such as nations and international organizations quickly updating their anti-money laundering regulations. This goes to show how money laundering is constantly evolving, which makes targeting this crime a constant challenge. There is currently a lot of research being conducted on Money Laundering and specifically research on how to tackle the issue. What this study wishes to contribute with is an overview of the recently published (year 2020), available literature on the matter, to facilitate the continuous work on how to best prevent and detect this crime. The aim with this study is to look at already existing literature and to establish what the current focus is when combatting Money Laundering. It is based on three research questions; What are the three main focus’ areas? What are the challenges? How is anti-money laundering regulations tackling cryptocurrency? The method used is a narrative literature review and the search was conducted through Malmö University Electronic Library. Following explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, the analysis was based on a total of 22 articles. The results show that the focus’ areas’ and challenges are; cryptocurrency and specifically the EU’s fifth anti-money laundering directive, challenges with international cooperation, and lastly, the role of financial institutions and identifying the beneficial owner.

Det finansiella systemet har påverkats starkt av den digitala utveckling som sker. Till följd av digitaliseringen så har digitala transaktioner inom banker ökat kraftigt och arbetet mot penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism spelar en allt större roll. Det har utforskats i teorin att automatisera processer och manuellt tidskrävande uppgifter med hjälp av artificiell intelligens men bankerna är försiktiga och avvaktande. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka en storbank och dess medarbetares acceptans av en ny AI-baserad AML-prototyp och vilka faktorer som påverkar införandet. Uppsatsens data är inhämtad från semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem olika experter inom en bank. Den insamlade empiriska data analyseras sedan utifrån en analysmodell baserad på Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology och tidigare forskning. Uppsatsens slutsatser är att egenskaper hos artificiell intelligens har en oklar inverkan, förväntad prestanda har en svagare positiv inverkan, förväntad ansträngning har en starkare positiv inverkan, sociala influenser har en oklar inverkan, underlättande förhållanden har en svagare positiv inverkan och beteendeintentionen har en svagare positiv inverkan.

The article discusses the intersection of anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and the handling of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) under German law or EU law applicable in Germany. It begins by acknowledging the negative perception of cryptocurrencies in the context of money laundering, emphasizing the need to explore AML regulations for NFTs, which have gained attention for tokenizing art. The text delves into the legal nature of NFTs, examining whether they can be classified as securities, asset investments, or crypto assets. It also explores the implications of these classifications on AML compliance, detailing the specific obligations for entities dealing with NFTs. The article concludes by highlighting the legal ambiguity surrounding NFTs and emphasizing the importance of conducting a case-by-case risk assessment for AML compliance.

The subject of my thesis is the identification and subsequent comparison of legal instruments which are intended to fight against legalization of proceeds of crime, which is also referred to as money laundering, in the Czech Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany. The first chapter is to familiarize the reader with the issue of money laundering, therefore it provides the definition of the phenomenon of money laundering and also describes the typical phases of this process. The second chapter is devoted to international institutions that deal with money laundering on the supranational level and whose activities are then reflected in international standards. The third chapter deals with legislation related to the fight against legalization of proceeds of crime in the Czech Republic. First I focus on the history of the development of the struggle against money laundering in the country and subsequently describe particular laws designed to regulate the rights and obligations relating to the effective fight against this phenomenon. Further I describe particular obligations that fall on subjects, which may be confronted with efforts to launder money within its activities, and characterize individual institutions that are involved in the fight against money laundering. The fourth chapter is...

Magister Legum - LLM

This dissertation examines a bank’s right to unilaterally terminate its contractual relationship with a customer on the basis of reputational risk. The law of contract allows a bank to terminate the bank-customer agreement when the customer is in serious breach of the contract. Over the years, however, a pattern has started to develop by which a bank can unilaterally terminate the bank-customer relationship of high-risk customers based on reputational risk. Banks are reluctant to facilitate the transactions of individuals surrounded by negative publicity, due to fears of how the bank’s investors, customers or counterparts might perceive the bank. Compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements, as set out by both domestic and foreign legislation, results in higher costs for the bank. As such, the profitability of a particular bank-customer relationship may ultimately decline to such an extent that the bank rather decides to make an appropriate business decision by terminating the relationship. Correspondent banking relationships are agreements in terms of which one bank will provide services for another in jurisdictions where the first bank lacks a physical presence. As such, whenever there is a perception that a local bank does not comply with the relevant AML/CFT laws as set out by its domestic legislation, the correspondent bank might decide to terminate its relationship with the local bank, leaving the latter financially excluded from the correspondent banking market. Such a situation would hinder the growth of the South African economy and may also cause a systemic event in the financial industry. Adequate customer due diligence (CDD) measures assist a bank in formulating a clear understanding of the business of its customers. The information obtained through CDD may also assist the bank in determining the reputation of a particular customer. This information can also assist law enforcement in combatting financial crimes. In this regard, it is recommended that a bank should be able to trace the information that was shared with Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and law enforcement agencies, so that the bank may reasonably determine the level of reputational risk involved in the relationship. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Mercantile Law / LLM / Unrestricted