Money laundering, a global problem that requires “coordinated measures”

The “coordinated measures” between the authorities and private actors are one of the keys to fight against money laundering, a crime that became a global problem.

This was stated this Monday in Montevideo to Agencia EFE by the expert Tamara Agninc, director and vice president of Chile Transparente, one of the speakers at the Congress for the Prevention of Money Laundering in the Americas 2023.

“It is a problem for the region, it is a problem for the world and therefore the need for these activities to be coordinated (…) Congresses like this highlight the urgency of establishing relatively coordinated measures”, pointed.

Likewise, the former director of the Financial Analysis Unit of her country stressed that said coordination must also be between the region and the different continents, because this is “a crime that knows no borders”.

“I believe that the key factor for all asset laundering prevention tasks to be effective is collaboration. Cooperation within the private sector, but also public-private cooperation, cooperation between countries and cooperation between regulators. It is the key factor for us to succeed in this very difficult task that is to pursue such a liquid crime ”, pointed.

On the other hand, Agninc said that money laundering “it is a very silent crime” and a mistake that is made is to think that it is too far away.

“It is the other way around, because the crime of money laundering is committed in the economy and in the formal economy. The more formal a certain economic sector is, the more vulnerable it is for criminals to try to give the appearance of legality to money that comes from a crime”, detailed.

Along the same lines, the Swiss expert Roy Gava, assistant professor at the University of San Gallen, also told EFE that money laundering is a “global issue” and that the only way to attack him is “coordinating” at the level of private and public sectors, as well as between nations.

“It is a problem that can only be attacked by joining forces and coordinating the best weapons that each one of the private sector has, which are the closest to reality, and the public sector, which are the ones that have to take care of it. control what happens with these large movements of money”held.

Finally, he pointed out that in America and Europe there are many similarities in the challenges they face in this area and pointed out that one of the main ones is that there are increasingly greater regulatory demands and that the private sector has to adapt to that.

The 2023 Money Laundering Prevention Congress of the Americas will take place in Montevideo until Tuesday, September 6, and will have the participation of more than 15 experts in the field.