The Role of Financial Intelligence Units in Shaping and Effective International Anti-Money Laundering Law and Policy
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Authors
McNaughton, Katarzyna
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Financial intelligence units , anti-money laundering law , financial crimes , comparative study of selected national models of FIUs
Alternative Title
Abstract
This thesis, by taking a comparative approach to study national models of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) from ten, selected, Western (Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg, United States) and Eastern (post-Soviet) countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine), offers a critical assessment of the international, Anti Money Laundering (AML) law approach to fight money laundering.
Since the 1990’s, an international AML regime was set up, within which a crucial role was assigned to national FIUs, which is to gather, analyze, and disseminate financial intelligence. However, the AML regime does not seem to be working effectively, considering the numerous examples of banking scandals, including the recent, $200 billion Danske Bank case. Is this failure related to FIU function?
In this thesis, I propose the theory that the problem stems from a lack of appreciation, by the international and the EU AML frameworks, that tackling financial crime is a heavily endogenous and idiosyncratic endeavour. To be specific, it is possible that national and local non-legal factors shape the nature and efficacy of FIUs. Hence, the diverse structures and modus operandi of national FIUs may impact on their domestic functioning and cross-border cooperation, and this may impede the international efforts in tackling money laundering. In addition, I speculate that there may be differences in FIU structure and function that are related to national, historical, social, and economic factors that define differences between Western and Eastern (post-Soviet) European countries.
The findings of my research are that FIUs are, indeed, substantially less homogenous than we could have expected because of the harmonization attempts. Part of their diversity can be characterized as ranging from a primarily administrative structure to a primarily law-enforcement one. Moreover, as suggested, FIUs do tend to cluster (with one telling exception) along an East-West dimension. The characterization offered here is not an evaluation of FIU efficacy per se, but simply a clarification of their structures and modus operandi, which may lead to a better understanding of their efficacy in future studies. To make FIUs work effectively, identification of their idiosyncratic problems is needed first, because issuing new global AML standards is not a solution.
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ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States