Penningtvätt - Definitionsproblem för bankerna

Sammanfattning: Money laundering has for a long time been an acknowledged problem, now more than ever. Especially after 9/11 2001 and the terrorist attacks in the USA, joint efforts have made combating the problem a serious matter. Combating and prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing is also important from a larger perspective. If you can close off finances of criminal activity, you are one step closer to also stop organized crime, since money laundering often works as a final step of organized crime. Today our Swedish banks have a big responsibility to discover and report to the financial police if suspicion of money laundering rises. Naturally, this require a great deal of resources and a substantial amount of work. Still investigations and reports show that only just under half of all banks within Sweden reported sometime during the year of 2009. There are a number of reasons for that. According to Brottsförebyggande rådet(Brå) banks acquire both inadequate knowledge and inadequate technical development. People who are involved with money laundering are always one step ahead of those who try to discover them. If one method of money laundering is discovered, another is invented. Knowledge and technical systems at the banks are therefore of great importance, since they are the ones to have contact with clients and money. In a report from Brå one of the reasons for the low number of reports, is said to be the complexity of the regulations and that the employees at the banks lack in knowledge when it comes to what the regulation concerning money laundering mean. Initially money laundering was meant to only cover when money was being laundered, but this area has with time been extended. Today the regulation also covers when white money is being stained to disguise the receiver of the money. This is often used when terrorism is being financed. Therefore, Brå gives as a proposal that the name money laundering should be changed into money removal or money movement, since this in a better way reflects what actually happens, which makes it easier for those who are supposed to carry out the rules. This thesis deals with the problems of definition that money laundering causes and the actions that has been suggested. The suggestion of most interest to this thesis is if the name of money laundering should be changed into money removal or money movement and the consequences of such an action. The purpose of this thesis is also to get an insight in the actions banks take to avoid money laundering. This is made to be able to see if there is a need for a change from their perspective.