New academic article by, Dr Sami Bensassi and Ariysi Raz published in Economica - ‘Combatting trade-related fraud: do the Financial Action Task Force recommendations bite?’
Research by Dr Sami Bensassi and Ariysi Raz of University of Birmingham Business School, funded by SOC ACE, has been published in LSE’s Economica journal.
In this open access academic paper, the research evaluates the efficacy of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations 2012, which set the global standard on combatting money laundering and terrorist financing, by exploiting its staggered adoption in 16 East and South African countries.
Using the trade gap as a proxy for trade-related fraud activities, such as trade-based money laundering, the research has found that the adoption of the FATF recommendations is correlated with a 15.3% reduction in trade-related fraud. Factors identified as informing the FATF’s efficacy are the capability of the state and the level of corruption and the amount by which FATF adoption can reduce trade-related fraud depends on the a countries level of compliance. The findings of the paper are contributing to a lively policy debate surrounding the role of of international organisations in combatting financing of organised crimes.