Laws enacted to curb financial crime have not done much to deter the practise, central bank governor Tom Alweendo said this week.Alweendo said during a workshop on money laundering organised by the bank that financial crime and especially money laundering is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon.

“The law enforcement agencies the world over are overwhelmed by the sheer size and sophistication that criminals are now employing to perpetrate their illegal deeds. The efforts on crime prevention are now compounded by globalization that has created what one may say is a global economy in which organised crime groups and individuals can and do generate huge sums of money by drug trafficking, financial crime, corruption, intellectual property crime, terrorism and human trafficking,” said Alweendo.
He said money laundering is a global problem and said it was imperative that the country acts to stop the scourge.
He said the financial sector and the banking sector in particular needs to operate in a crime and money free environments.
“Banks deal with other people's money and therefore rely heavily on reputation for integrity,” he said.
He said money laundering on a large scale would complicate the ability of banks to manage their operations and risks because banks will not be able to predict the movement of laundering money.
“Money laundering is also bad for the economy and development in that it undermines legitimate business, competition and reduces the tax revenue to national authorities as launderers would be operating underground outside the tax net,” said Alweendo.