Monday, July 12, 2010

Mobile money techniques again fingered by forensic accountants

Interested as I am in mobile banking, I tend to pick up on all publications referencing mobile banking. This is why I recently picked up on a anti-money laundering expert picking on mobile banking as the next big thing in money laundering (Read here). Kevin Sullivan is not only a money laundering expert, but has served on some serious anti-narcotic working groups.

The content of his insights is available as a podcast, which I diligently download. I took the time to listen to very interesting insights about bulk cash money laundering schemes. It is easier to ship money to Mexico in $100 bills than in $1 bills for instance. About 2 minutes of the 15 minute podcast is allocated to the next big thing in money laundering: NFC and eWallets. The problem is that this thing is new and the "bad guys" will figure out how to mis-use it before the "good guys" know how to plug the gaps... please!

Just because it is new and because money laundering experts and forensic accountants cannot figure it out, does not make it bad. I think that there should be a way to block this type of mis-information.

2 comments:

sdr said...

Dear Hans, you're exactly right. Hope you are well. Sean

Anonymous said...

Well, I am also a money laundering expert and I fail to see all the hysteria about mobile payments and stored value. Yes, like anything else it can and has been used for the purposes of money laundering. However, like Money Services Businesses years ago, stored value is now being unfairly labeled as ALL high risk. The fact of the matter is that most of the major players in the prepaid space have all sorts of identity, due diligence and authentication checks in place as well as daily limits, thresholds, and restrictions, preventing such abuses as fraud and money laundering.