Trade-based money laundering (TBML) empowers criminals to run free post-Brexit

Mariola Jolanta Marzouk

Journal of Money Laundering Control, 2021, vol. 25, issue 2, 376-387

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to provide unique empirical findings exploring the impact of the UK’s post-Brexit Economic Strategy to boost trade with developing countries on the UK banking sector’s ability to manage trade-based money laundering risks. Design/methodology/approach - Exploratory research design that used structured literature review, followed by semi-structured interviews with key subject matter experts employed by large UK banks. Findings - Both banks and law enforcement struggle to prioritise trade-based money laundering (TBML) intelligence discovery due to deficient skills, resources, technology and lack of strong regulatory stimulus. The regulated sector calls for the UK anti-money laundering (AML) reform that would better incentivise TBML deterrence, yet the Government underestimates the money laundering risks while trading with high-risk jurisdictions post-Brexit. Research limitations/implications - The findings are based on a small sample of six semi-structured interviews with difficult to access population of key subject matter experts. Despite the small sample, participants provided well-articulated and informed insights. Practical implications - The UK’s post-Brexit Economic Strategy to boost trade with developing countries downplays the TBML risks it carries. The findings should alert UK banks, law enforcement and the Government who will collectively bear the responsibility to effectively manage TBML while enabling smooth trading. Originality/value - The research provides unique perceptions of UK banks’ senior subject matter experts on managing TBML threats from opportunistic criminals.

Keywords: Compliance; Organized crime; Brexit; Proceeds of crime; TBML; Trade-based money laundering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jmlcpp:jmlc-04-2021-0040

DOI: 10.1108/JMLC-04-2021-0040

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Money Laundering Control is currently edited by Dr Li Hong Xing and Prof Barry Rider

More articles in Journal of Money Laundering Control from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().