Brazilian agency hears more ML complaints

São Paulo - The number of money laundering complaints filed in the Brazilian insurance sector has jumped this year, according to data released by the regulator Susep (Superintendência de Seguros Privados). From January to August, 2,436 reports of unusual activity involving money laundering were received. That's just 1.6% less than the amount recorded through the whole of 2005.

Eighty four percent of the complaints involved annuity and other policies, a further 12% were in cases related to capitalisation bonds and 4% to pension accounts. The numbers of such reports have risen rapidly over the past five years. In 2001, there were just seven reports. That rose to 870 in 2003, and 2,476 in 2005.

Regulatory change

The trend to report more unusual transactions comes ahead of a change in the regulations covering insurance companies, says Marcia Klinke, a director in the