Assessing the risk of money laundering: research challenges and implications for practitioners

Over the past 12 years, the concept of risk has become central to the anti-money laundering (AML, hereinafter) debate worldwide. All the actors involved in the prevention of money laundering — governments, law enforcement agencies, public authorities, banks and professionals — have been asked to shift from a rule-based paradigm to a risk-based approach, allocating their AML efforts where the risk of money laundering is higher.