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Banks will always be needed, but management accountants should also now focus on TBML

By Mark Ford on May 10, 2021

There will always be a need for the banks and other institutions to focus on the risks of money laundering, but increasingly there is a recognition that organised crime and other money launderers are looking for other means to launder their funds according to a podcast posted on the Financial Management (FM) news portal.

The Management accountants versus money laundering podcast says money launderers are looking increasingly at trade-based techniques, and management accountants should increasingly play at the frontlines of money laundering risk.

Strategic business advantage

FM magazine senior editor Drew Ademek suggests on the podcast that the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased money laundering, and trade-based money laundering (TBML) in particular, over the last year.

Featuring London-based financial crime partner at PwC, Matthew Russell, the podcast looks at how finance professionals can address the changing anti-money laundering landscape and how they can use what they learn in the process to their strategic business advantage.

Illicit wildlife trade

Russell cites the illicit wildlife trade as one of the ways organisations can get caught up in TBML that they may not be aware of or that are not obviously money laundering.

While banks and financial institutions have a part to play frustrating illicit wildlife trade, Russell says the initiatives that are successful in relation to that criminal activity are also those that include transport.

Much more focus on the airlines or the logistics organisations who potentially may find themselves unwittingly involved in the movement of illicit wildlife is needed he concludes.

Scope

The podcast examines how the global anti-money laundering regulatory and enforcement landscape is changing.

It also looks at what management accountants need to know about the future of anti-money laundering and how to best prepare for it.

A link to and a transcript of the FM podcast, Management accountants versus money laundering, can be found here.