UK’s territories open to money laundering

UK’s 14 remaining overseas territories risk becoming money laundering centres
as a result of the shortage in qualified investigators to police their financial
systems, the
Commons
public accounts committee warned yesterday.

The MPs singled out the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla, in
the Caribbean, as most at risk from questionable financial practices because of
poor quality regulatory standards, the Guardian reports.

‘Territories’ financial services lack the investigative capacity to
scrutinise suspected money laundering activity fully and governors have not used
their reserve powers to rectify this. In such a sensitive aspect of the global
financial system it is complacent to allow territories for which the UK is
responsible entirely to manage the risk themselves,’ the MPs warned.

Their report shows the Turks and Caicos Islands, where 700 people are
employed in financial services, only have five experts qualified enough to
investigate suspect practices.

Further reading:

Read
the Guardian story