In India, a money laundering compliance professional plays a pivotal role in becoming a global professional. To become a Certified Money Laundering Professional, one has to acquire the ACAMS (Association of Certified Money Laundering Specialist) certification to gain prominence in the global footprint. The money laundering specialist roles were crucial for banks and financial institutions, especially with huge amounts of money routed through financial institutions to boost the economy.
Money laundering laws were very austere in countries like the USA, Europe, Singapore, etc. The laws governed by these countries were very stringent. However, in many countries, money laundering is a way forward with the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Guidelines. However, banks and NBFCs still hold a best practice in combating money laundering.
Money laundering is not about routing money through other countries; its ultimate purpose of routing by placement is to introduce illicit money via financial institutions, and layering is to move the money flow via financial institutions through multiple accounts and different countries, making it difficult to trace. Integration—The laundered funds were reintroduced into the legitimate economy, appearing as if they came from a legitimate source.
In banks and financial institutions, there is a strong compliance mechanism to tackle financial crime by having strong customer due diligence (CDD)/know your customer (KYC) by creating the customer profiles before they enter into the transaction. If any transactions are invariably not in line with the customer profile, they are called suspicious transactions.
Then, the banks or financial institutions will be continuously monitoring the suspicious transactions with the available records and reporting them to the respective authorities in different government departments. In India, banks report suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit. Once the banks or financial institutions report the SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) to the government agency, the agency will take action against the respective money launderers as per the law.
This role is quite attractive in India and many foreign countries; therefore, professionals should equip themselves to grab the opportunity. Also, Indian professional institutions can sign a synergy to get the benefit of Indian professionals entering the global level.
Also, the ACAMS institute can give an exemption or a good fee waiver for Indian professionals like CAs, CSs, and CWAs who can play a global role and add value to the banks and financial institutions as compliance officers.
There are many processes involved in fighting and monitoring money laundering once one has gotten into the role of financial crime compliance. Then they get a real exposure to fight against money laundering and financial crime.
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