ICELAND WARNED IT NEEDS TO DO MORE TO TACKLE MONEY LAUNDERING

A new report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) states that Iceland needs to improve its efforts to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.

The report says that Icelandic authorities have a “fragmented understanding’’ of the risks; with the financial and business sectors showing little awareness of the dangers or their obligations to report any suspicions.

FATF states in the report that Iceland “must use its ability to coordinate domestic authorities and put practices in place to strengthen its efforts to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing”.

While many countries have made great strides in recent years in trying to tackle money laundering, Iceland’s shortcomings have been laid bare by this report. It is surprising that a country which has suffered serious problems in its banking system in the past decade has not fully “woken up’’ to the problems caused by money laundering.

A failure to rectify this could lead to Iceland gaining an unwanted reputation for money laundering – and a far bigger problem with it than at present.

No country, corporate or individual in business can afford to be complacent when it comes to identifying money laundering risks.

Read our article: MAKING SURE YOU DO ENOUGH TO PREVENT MONEY LAUNDERING