Sep. 20, 2004. 01:00 AM
Money laundering on rise, poll finds
CRAIG WONG
CANADIAN PRESS
Two-thirds of banks around the world have reported an increase in the volume of suspicious activities they report to police, a report by KPMG suggests.
The accounting and consulting firm suggests in a report for release today that $500 billion to $1 trillion is laundered worldwide annually by drug dealers, arms traffickers and other criminals.
James Hunter, president of KPMG Forensic, said that, since the September, 2001, terrorist attacks against America, financial institutions have become more vigilant against the proceeds of crime.
"Money launderers have always seen Canada as a bit of a haven because we have a stable banking system, we've got a pretty open economy and we're quite lenient on criminals," Hunter said.
"In Canada, we don't really have the same enforcement mentality that they have in the United States. So, for example, when white-collar crime occurs in the United States, it tends to be dealt with much more severely."
The survey polled 209 financial institutions around the world, including five Canadian banks.
Hunter said a key challenge for Canadian financial institutions is to ensure the same standards are applied across the whole organization, regardless of where its branches are located.
"In many cases they have not grown organically. They've grown by merger and acquisition.
"I think there is a real challenge for a Canadian bank to make sure the standards that are applied in Toronto will be applied in the South Pacific or the Caribbean or other areas that are traditionally associated with money launderers."
The survey suggests police are having difficulty responding to the increased volume of reports of suspicious transactions, due to a lack of resources and the challenge of monitoring account transactions in other countries.
The first line of defence for banks is their tellers, Hunter said.
"No bank in a developed country wants to be seen to be facilitating terrorist financing."
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Al-Qaida targets Ulster (NOTE: misleading headline!)
By John Hunter
19 September 2004
ULSTER is included on a possible terrorist "hit-list", at the centre of a major international security exercise to be launched next spring.
For security experts think Northern Ireland could be a possible "backdoor" target for an al-Qaida attack on Britain.
According to a well-placed source, the security services here, including MI5, have been working on the planned exercise involving Britain, the United States and Canada for the past two years.
The Irish republic has also been kept informed.
Code-named "Atlantic Blue", it will involve personnel drawn from military, police, rescue and security services on both sides of the Atlantic.
Dublin's task force on emergency planning, has also been consulted, since any attack on Northern Ireland might involve terrorist overflying of the Republic's airspace.
The planned scenario is a supposed terrorist attack firstly on the United States, which then spreads to the UK.
Use of suicide-mission aircraft, as in the 9/11 attacks, with chemical, biological and radioactive attacks are all on the schedule.
Although the central focus of the UK part of the exercise is obviously on world-prestige targets in London, Northern Ireland also figures as a possible focus for a sneak attack, perhaps designed to divert defence attention from a main thrust on the British capital.
Ulster targets, on which a special MI5 working group has been advising on security in the event of an al-Qaida attack, include Belfast's two airports, parliament buildings at Stormont, and several prominent Belfast high-rise skyscrapers.
It is also understood, that with the discreet agreement of the Dublin government, the RAF has also been taking part in regular "familiarisation", exercises in southern Irish airspace.
A UK security source suggests that, should a civilian airliner be hi-jacked in the Republic for use as a September 11 bomb, the RAF would be called in to shoot it down.
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=563501