The Necessity of Anti-money Laundering Standards for Iranian Auditors

Abstract

According to the last public statement of FATF (2018), Iran has some significant deficiencies in its Anti-money Laundering (AML) regime, especially in suspicious transaction reporting. In this research, by sending questionnaire to partners of Iranian auditing firms which have authorization from Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants in 2018 we try to empirically show that Iranian auditors do not response to AML cases effectively and adopting an AML standard is required for Iranian auditors. Therefore, it helps to improve one of deficiencies of Iran’s AML regime. The finding shows most of the sample auditors claims that it is necessary to have an AML standard and it can be helpful for them. Furthermore, most of Iranian auditors in money laundering cases which companies are involved do nothing except filling the checklist of Anti-Money Laundering Implementing Regulations for Business and Non-business Companies (2012).