International Anti-Money Laundering Measures and Professional

Abstract

Money laundering is one of the biggest and the fastest growing problems in the contemporary world. It is seen that in legitimate economy most of the dirty money i.e. 38.6% comes from the investment fraudulent schemes, bankruptcy fraud and corporate frauds whereas, 27.5% comes from drug trafficking. This rising trend of money laundering and other financial frauds are due to several reasons, which include the activities in businesses that do not comply with professional ethics. The current research is a qualitative research that has used secondary data to derive the results. Because the study followed a deductive approach, the results of the study have been derived by utilising the existing theories and established data from published literature and different reports. The analysis of the obtained data has been conducted in the form of content analysis to attain the objectives of the current study. The findings of the study suggest that the international organisations have taken several steps to ensure the reduction of money laundering by imposing several unified acts based on the Vienna Convention and the Palermo Convention. It has also been found that ethically compliant professional activities also play an integral part against money laundering. Some of these activities have been reported as forming strong codes of conduct for monetary operations, informing the bad repercussions of participating in money laundering activities, and having proper control and management strategies in position that can have adequate monitoring on institutional improper conduct. The study recommends that every state should have regulated and monitored free trade zones as they are often used as the cornerstone of money laundering. Moreover, a centralised reporting system of the financial institutions have also been recommended, alongside the establishment of a regulatory body for the lawyers and accountants.