The
International Monetary Fund estimates that each year between 500 million and 1.5 billion Dollars of "dirty" money is being laundered in the international financial markets. To counter this development numerous initiatives at the international level in last fifteen years led to an increasingly elaborate anti-money laundering regime.
In its current form the regime relies heavily on cooperation of the financial sector. Thus, financial institutions - and increasingly other economic actors as well - are required to maintain elaborate "know your customers" systems and to report suspicions to the relevant authorities.
Whereas the primary locus of rule-making is situated in international bodies such as the
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, for these rules to be effective they have to be translated into national laws and regulations. This translation process is influenced by national actors and institutions whose interplay will shape the final policy decided upon.
The goal is to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the process of international anti-money laundering regulation by incorporating both international and national levels.
The research project which is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and run by
Sebastian Heilmann, Professor of Political Science and
Carsten Kremer, M.A. at Trier University therefore aims to analyze and compare the regulatory process with regard to anti-money laundering in Germany and the United Kingdom in the context of international pressures for harmonization on the one hand and of distinct 'regulatory traditions and regimes' on the other hand.
