
What are the three phases of money laundering?
The three stages of money laundering
- Placement Money laundering begins by moving the criminal proceeds into a legitimate source of income. It might be moved into financial instruments or bank accounts. ...
- Layering Once the money has been put in place, the second stage is called layering or structuring. ...
- Integration
What are the steps for reporting money laundering?
establish effective customer due diligence systems and monitoring programs. screen against Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and other government lists. establish an effective suspicious activity monitoring and reporting process. develop risk-based anti-money laundering programs.
How does money laundering usually begin?
How does the money laundering process usually begin? Money laundering involves three steps: The first involves introducing cash into the financial system by some means ("placement"); the second involves carrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source of the cash ("layering"); and finally, acquiring wealth generated ...
How can governments stop money laundering?
Start-ups, fintech, banks, and citizens harmed more than criminals
- The flip side of failure is an opportunity. ...
- Go forth, armed with evidence. ...
- New research exposes fundamental flaws…. ...
- It also reveals opportunities to start marrying good intentions with real-life results…and leadership, beyond followership. ...

What is the final stage of the money laundering process?
the integration stageThe final stage of the money laundering process is termed the integration stage. It is at the integration stage where the money is returned to the criminal from what seem to be legitimate sources.
What are the 3 stages of money laundering?
Although money laundering is a diverse and often complex process, it generally involves three stages: placement, layering, and/or integration.
How many stages are there in the money laundering process?
threeThe money laundering process most commonly occurs in three key stages: placement, layering and integration.
What is integration stage in money laundering?
Integration money laundering is the process of using legitimate transactions to disguise illicit proceeds. In the integration stage, the funds are reintroduced into the economy to appear to belong to legitimate sources. This helps the criminal clean the dirty money, invest it, and profit from it.
At which stage of money laundering are credit cards used?
Credit Card Laundering Generally, credit cards are not used in the placement. They are more likely to be used in the layering or integration stages. One example of using credit cards for money laundering purposes is overpaying a credit card balance and then asking for a refund.
What are the stages of money?
Money has evolved through different stages according to the time, place and circumstances. Some of the major stages through which money has evolved are as follows: (i) Commodity Money (ii) Metallic Money (iii) Paper Money (iv) Credit Money (v) Plastic Money.
What are the types of money laundering?
The traditional forms of laundering money, including smurfing, using mules, and opening shell corporations. Other methods include buying and selling commodities, investing in various assets like real estate, gambling, and counterfeiting.
What are the three 3 member institutions of AMLC?
The AMLC is composed of the Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as Chairman, and the Commissioner of the Insurance Commission and the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission as members.
What are the types of money laundering?
The traditional forms of laundering money, including smurfing, using mules, and opening shell corporations. Other methods include buying and selling commodities, investing in various assets like real estate, gambling, and counterfeiting.
What are the stages of money laundering?
The money laundering cycle can be broken down into three distinct stages; however, it is important to remember that money laundering is a single process. The stages of money laundering include the: 1 Placement Stage 2 Layering Stage 3 Integration Stage
What is the placement stage?
The Placement Stage. The placement stage represents the initial entry of the "dirty" cash or proceeds of crime into the financial system. Generally, this stage serves two purposes: (a) it relieves the criminal of holding and guarding large amounts of bulky of cash; and (b) it places the money into the legitimate financial system.
Can money be integrated back with a criminal?
There are many different ways in which the laundered money can be integrated back with the criminal; however, the major objective at this stage is to reunite the money with the criminal in a manner that does not draw attention and appears to result from a legitimate source.
What is money laundering?
Money laundering is a process that criminals use in an attempt to hide the illegal source of their income. By passing money through complex transfers and transactions, or through a series of businesses, the money is “cleaned” of its illegitimate origin and made to appear as legitimate business profits. Gross Profit Gross profit is the direct profit ...
Why was the FATF charged with money laundering?
Because money laundering is a key part of terrorist organizations that are usually funded through illegal enterprises, the FATF was also charged with directly fighting to cut off illegal cash flows to terrorists and terrorist groups.
What is the problem with drug smuggling?
A major business problem of large, organized criminal enterprises – such as drug smuggling operations – is that they end up with huge amounts of cash that they need to conceal in order to avoid attracting investigations by legal authorities. The recipients of such large amounts of cash also do not want to have to acknowledge it as income, thereby incurring massive income tax liabilities#N#Income Tax Payable Income tax payable is a term given to a business organization’s tax liability to the government where it operates. The amount of liability will be based on its profitability during a given period and the applicable tax rates. Tax payable is not considered a long-term liability, but rather a current liability,#N#.
What is layering in banking?
Layering is the continuing transfer of the money through multiple transactions, forms, investments, or enterprises, to make it virtually impossible to trace the money back to its illegal origin. Final integration is when the money is freely used legally without the necessity to conceal it any further.
Where did the term "money laundering" come from?
In fact, the origin of the term “money laundering” comes from infamous gangster Al Capone’s practice of using a chain of laundromats he owned to launder huge amounts of cash. The money laundering process usually goes something like the following: 1. Initial placement.
Which two agencies are responsible for money laundering?
Many different legal authorities regularly investigate suspected money laundering activities. In the United States, the FBI and the IRS are the two primary agencies that handle money laundering investigations.
What is a criminal restaurant?
A criminal or criminal organization owns a legitimate restaurant business. Money obtained from illegal activities is gradually deposited into a bank through the restaurant. The restaurant reports daily cash sales much higher than what it actually takes in.
What is the first stage of money laundering?
Placement is the first stage of money laundering, which involves transferring funds to a legitimate source through financial institutions, casinos, financial instruments, etc. while hiding its head. There are several ways of money laundering explained in the related articles at the end of this article. This is the most vulnerable stage of money laundering, as criminals hold large sums of money and inject it into the financial system, which can attract the attention of law enforcement.
What is money laundering?
Money laundering is a term used to describe the taking of money generated from illegal activities and making it legal and clean. This article will explore the three general stages of money laundering process and ways to combat money laundering criminals.
Why is money laundering so difficult to detect?
Money laundering is increasingly challenging to detect and track due to the development of technology and the integration of the economy between markets.
What is AML in banking?
Anti-money laundering (AML) is the financial function of organizations dealing with public money, which encompasses laws, regulations, and procedures designed to prevent criminals from exchanging money obtained through illegal activities. Read more about anti-money laundering in this article. According to an article published in Thomson Reuters, ...
Can money be returned to criminals?
Money is now legally returned to criminals after being introduced into the financial system, often broken down into multiple smaller financial transactions. Criminals can now legally recover their illicit funds after fully integrating them into a legitimate source and can use them for any purposes.
What is money laundering?
The term money laundering refers to the process of taking criminal proceeds and turning it into legitimate cash or assets. For example, stolen funds might be used to purchase real estate. The property is sold and the legitimate proceeds put in a bank account.
The three stages of money laundering
Before you can put these anti-money laundering checks in place, it’s first helpful to understand the three stages involved.
UK anti-money laundering regulations
Putting a stop to money laundering means looking for red flags at each of these three stages. Anti-money laundering policy is implemented by two main authorities within the UK, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Protect your business with anti-money laundering checks
In addition to boosting your awareness of anti-money laundering policy, how can your business help to fight money laundering at each of the three stages?

Table of Contents
How Does Money Laundering Work?
- Each day our world appears to become faster and more and more complex. Just alike, each day the methods used by money launderers become more sophisticated and the financial transactions more complex. Actually, there is no specific or single methodology of money laundering, and as in many other subject areas, a theoretical model was built to conceptually co…
Money Laundering Stage 1 – Placement
- The first stage – the placement stage – represents the initial entry of the “dirty” cash or proceeds of crime into the legitimate financial system, for example by a simple deposit at a financial institution. But there are countless ways for the placement of the cash. For example, cash could be packed into a suitcase and smuggled to a country, or the launderer could use so-called “smur…
Money Laundering Stage 2 – Layering
- The second stage – the layering stage – is the process of separating the proceeds of criminal activity from their origin through the use of many different techniques to layer the funds. Recall what we discussed when we were looking at what money laundering is. Disguising the illegal origin is one of the two key components of money laundering, and this generally takes place in t…