The Effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering Policy: A Cost-Benefit Perspective

Abstract

Basically all countries in the world have an anti-money laundering framework in place based on the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body established by the G-7 countries in 1989. Now that all these countries are spending tax money to fight money laundering, a natural question to ask is how effective is this policy. Do taxpayers receive value for the money spent? In this chapter we discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of anti-money laundering policies and perform a measurement for countries in the European Union. We use the common policy evaluation tool of a cost-benefit analysis to inform us about the efficiency.