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Global AML Regulations: A 2021 Review of New AMl/CFT Laws & Identity Verification Regulations in the Russian Federation

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Ethan Hest
Global AML Regulations: A 2021 Review of New AMl/CFT Laws & Identity Verification Regulations in the Russian Federation

The Russian Federation has always been seen as a hub for illicit activity, money laundering, and sophisticated crime regimes both in regards to laundering of traditional currency and through cryptocurrency. Bloomberg reports that “[t]he darknet market, where cryptocurrency is used to buy and sell illicit goods online, generated record revenue last year, led by the Russian bazaar Hydra, according to a research report by blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis.” Pseudo-anonymous cryptocurrency transfers are now being used as a major tool for money launderers and terrorist financing within Russia. 

“Eastern Europe has one of the highest rates of cryptocurrency transaction volume associated with criminal activity and, thanks to Hydra, is the only region with a criminal service as one of the top 10 entities sending cryptocurrency value to the region,” Chainalysis said in the report.

“The FBI assumes AML programs are not adequately designed to monitor and detect threat actors’ use of private investment funds to launder money. Additionally, the FBI assumes threat actors exploit this vulnerability to integrate illicit proceeds into the licit global financial system,” it said. 

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) December 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report Anti-money Laundering And Counter-terrorist Financing Measures Russian Federation,  “Russia has conducted NRAs [National Risk Assessments] for ML and TF. Assessors largely agree with the results. The ML NRA identifies embezzlement of public funds, crimes related to corruption and abuse of power, fraud in the financial sector,and drug trafficking as the prevalent types of criminal activity with the potential to generate illicit proceeds. A large proportion of criminal proceeds generated in Russia are laundered abroad, as recognised by the ML NRA, which makes the pursuit of proceeds of crime to other countries an important focus for the assessment.” 

 

Despite the risks of anti money laundering and overall enforcement gaps, the following types of AML fraud prevention safeguards are being put into place in the Russian Federation: 

  • A pushc to verify customer identity at the time of onboarding
  • Strengthened aml identity verification tools 
  • Improved digital id verification 
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Ethan Hest
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