Though a glass darkly

Welcome to The Watchman blog.

This is a moderated blog (i.e. posts are subject to review) which aims to draw together peoples experiences in implementing risk based Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems together with your views, experience, wisdom and concerns.

By way of background, I've been involved with the UK's Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime since the turn of this century and I am worried. In theory, there are good guys and bad guys and some poorly drafted law in between!

IMHO, what appears to be happening is that politicians and civil servants are flooding the AML segment with poorly drafted laws and regulations and failing to give either clarity in areas of confusion or moral leadership. Leaving the AML regulated sector to muddle through as best as it can whilst the sector absorbs more and more of the cost of fighting financial crime, i.e. off the Governments profit and loss account.

Now don't get me wrong, Money Launderers are intelligent, capable, manipulative and very, very harmful to the good of society and us as individuals. They need to be indentified and stopped. However if we don't step back and think about the issues raised and to constructively (aspirational point here people) or at least wittily hold the powers that be to account, then we end up with the worst of all worlds.

Which would be an expensive, bureaucratic, only occasionally functioning Kafkaesque system in which the good guys (and girls) are policed for profit, whilst the targets of the legislation, the organised criminals, the terrorists and the launderers get away because the Government hasn’t built enough prisons etc.

My hope is that those who choose to participate in this blog will be open, funny and helpful and that it will in time be a useful resource that is read by just more than the odd AML junky.

Let's see!