The participation of the insurance sector in the laundering of criminal proceeds

Abstract

The development of financial institutions inRussiaand the scaling-up of the use of financial instruments contribute to the emergence of an increasing number of schemes for laundering criminal proceeds. At the same time, the improvement of legislation and the introduction of strict control over the activities of financial institutions lead to the complication of such schemes, including an increase in the number of entities in the financial sector involved in the process of legalization. Now criminals are increasingly using non-credit financial organizations. Subjects of the insurance sector fall into the zone of critical risk of involvement in criminal schemes. At the end of2018, aplanned event will be held inRussiawithin the framework of the fourth round of inspections, which will be carried out by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). FATF will assess Russia not only in terms of the performance of the Central Bank of Russia and the Federal Service of Financial Monitoring, but also in the effectiveness of its functions and the interaction of all links in the national system of combating legalization: from financial institutions that provide information on suspicious transactions to judicial bodies that issue confiscation orders proceeds from crime.The insurance sector inRussiais represented by its three main entities: insurance organizations, insurance brokers, and mutual insurance societies. A significant quantitative share of the market is occupied by insurance organizations, whose services are in turn an increasingly popular tool for legalization.The article is researched the insurance sector in Russia, analyzed the main trends of the sector development, suggested a methodological basis for record the participation of the insurance sector in the money laundering, also identified the problems associated with process of implementation of internal control in the field of AML/CFT. The author also presents typical schemes for the laundering of proceeds from crimes related to insurance companies.