The Façade of Flexibility: Reframing the Debate of Lawyers Dilemma in Combatting Money Laundering in Developing Countries

• In Event: The International Markets of Money Laundering and of Anti-Money Laundering

Abstract

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s move from a rules-based approach to a risk-based approach (RBA) in 2012 signalled a policy shift, a landmark that recognised the sovereignty and contextual nuances of countries. Ingrained in the FATF’s recommendations on anti-money laundering (AML), the RBA encourages countries to identify their AML risk and allocate resources to combat them. The RBA’s introduction significantly affects all recommendations, including the FATF’s recommendation that lawyers should gatekeep by identifying their clients' suspicious activities and reporting same to relevant authorities. This article considers the RBA’s implications for countries compliance trajectory, specifically on the link between lawyers' gatekeeping responsibilities, the resistances and compliance challenges of developing countries, and the incorporation of non-traditional normative values such as institutional protection, into the legal and political discourse of AML compliance. The article argues that while the RBA has led to several reforms in financial crime governance within developing countries, they have also had the contradictory effect of reinforcing the core disciplinary discourses and pre-existing practices of the rules-based regime.

Author

• Nkechikwu Valerie Azinge-Egbiri, Law School, Lancaster University (UK)