Anti-Money Laundering Policies, De-Risking, and Challenges for Emerging Markets

Countering terrorism is and must remain a critical national security priority for the United States and countries around the world. Anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws are key tools in these efforts. However, there are rising concerns that these efforts are increasingly hurting emerging market economies. And worse, some of the efforts to combat money laundering and terror financing may be having the opposite effect than intended—driving financial flows underground, making them less transparent and more susceptible to being used for nefarious purposes. How should we think about and address these unintended effects? A new CGD report (to be released at this event) tries to answer this question and will be the focus of the panel discussion that follows Dr. Sheets’ opening remarks.