5. Money laundering will be easy in the Metaverse. Money laundering in the Metaverse could become a real issue if it actually takes off. Although its user base is currently small, digital assets are a fantastic tool for launderingmoney. Since the Metaverse is essentially a space populated by virtual businesses selling virtual goods, money launderers can use the same real-world tactics of placement, layering and extraction to clean their money. They will be able to repeat this step over and over again using different amounts each time, making transactions extremely difficult to trace. 7. Specialist AML partners will increasingly be relied upon. Companies will continue to grapple with balancing cost, speed and transparency of business transactions in a competitive and volatile economy. As such, they will have no choice but to rely on specialist partners to keep them up to date with relevant AML legislation and ecosystem changes. 8. Regulatory authorities’ thirst for intelligence will continue to increase. We expect to see an increase in the use of the data collected when companies file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). Data collected from SARs can be used by up to 80 law enforcement agencies who conduct their own checks as a means for investigating and preventing criminal activity. This information is currently interrogated as a dataset thousands of times a year for keywords and names to help identify and direct an investigation. Particularly with the improvements being made to the SARs portal, we expect agencies will better utilise structured data and will allow better quality data into the system to be triaged, analysed and used more effectively across different departments. The bottom line The year ahead is full of new opportunities, especially with the further development of the Metaverse andweb3. This, along with the economic downturn, could lead to a rise in fraudulent activity. Businesses must stay alert and ensure that they are taking all the measures possible to avoid falling victim to money launderers. Thanks to new developments in AML technology, 2023 looks bright for compliance. Now’s the time to take advantage of new tech, so businesses - from real estate, and accounting to law - can stay on the right side of history, avoid hefty fines and come out of the recession shining. 6. Money launderers will exploit web3 as it develops. As web3 starts to develop and mature, we’ll see more creative ways for money launderers to exploit this space. And, as new regulations come in about government UBO databases, we’d expect to see a rise in even more opaque structures to try and hide beneficial ownership. “As web3 starts to develop and mature, we’ll see more creative ways for money launderers to exploit this space. “ Finance Monthly. Bank i ng & F i nanc i a l Se r v i ce s 37
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