FATF recommends more study on money laundering via insurance

Paris -- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its 2003/2004 Typologies Report in late February at the organisation’s plenary meeting in Paris. The report, which sums up the work completed by typology experts who met in November 2003 in Mexico City, recommends further study of the way the insurance sector can be used to launder money.

The report notes that although the worldwide insurance industry generates premiums in the range of $2.4 to $2.6 trillion, little work has been done on how money launderers use this sector’s products for their own ends. "The experts viewed the insurance sector as potentially vulnerable to money laundering because of the size of the industry, the easy availability and diversity of its products and the structure of its business," the report said. Although the International Association of Insurance