The fight against money laundering and terrorism financing faces multi-faceted challenges in today's world. Proceeds from illegal activities undermine the integrity of the economy. Tracking illegal financial flows - in cash, electronic payments, hawala or crypto assets - is a challenge for supervisors, prosecutors, banks and other actors. It becomes even harder where criminals operate across borders and use sophisticated legal constructions to hide the illegal origin. Beneficial ownership is often intransparent. Decentralised finance and crypto assets offer new ways to hide criminal proceeds. In addition, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have created new risks of money laundering. On the global level, the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) has been fighting money laundering and terrorism financing by setting AML/CTF standards for more than 200 countries and jurisdictions. On the European level, the EU has increasingly harmonised AML/CTF rules and will soon create its own AML authority.

The former FATF president Dr Marcus Pleyer will discuss the biggest global and European AML/CTF challenges as well as strategies to combat them.