The illicit practice of money laundering (ML) poses global challenges, causing harmful repercussions for society. Legislators worldwide have placed financial institutions at the forefront of initiatives aimed at preventing ML. Even with the adoption of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures, financial institutions continue to face challenges in combating illicit financial activity. Prior investigations primarily concentrated on evaluating the regulatory framework itself, leaving gaps in understanding other aspects causing ineffective AML efforts. Going further in-depth, this study aims to explore how institutional pressure leads to ineffective ML prevention within Finnish financial institutions. To address these challenges, the institutional theory and several concepts supported the exploration of the institutional environment, with due consideration given to social constructs. Furthermore, a qualitative approach is employed due to the exploratory nature of this study. It consists of the analysis of both classified and public official documents from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA), interviews held with representatives actively involved in financial institutions' AML efforts, and other official AML guidelines. The findings of this study acknowledge the suboptimal regulatory pressure and reveal instances of data deficiencies. However, the social context emerged as the most influential factor, highlighting the gap between AML efforts and ML activities.