Money laundering is a process which conceals or disguises the true nature of property obtained from illegal and criminal activity, so that it appears to have originated from legitimate sources.

Terrorist financing is the process that terrorists gain financial support, in any form, for their operations in performing terrorist acts.

Financial crime is crime specifically committed against property; involving the conversion of one’s property obtained from criminal activities to his/her own personal benefit. These crimes range from basic theft or fraud committed by individuals to large corporations. There are many forms of financial crimes, such as money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, forgery, counterfeiting and corruption, etc.

Sanctions are commercial and financial penalties and restrictions imposed and applied by national governments and organizations such as the United Nations and European Union, to specific individuals, entities and countries. The goal is to deter terrorism, narcotics trafficking, arms dealing and other threats to the national security.

The negative impact on financial crimes and sanctions is bigger than you thought, it affects the integrity and stability of the financial sector and market, it also ruins the reputation of a financial institution or an individual. Therefore, it is important for Hong Kong and its institutions to maintain an effective regime to prevent criminal activities from happening.

With the rapid advancement of technology, everyone is impacted by financial crimes and could be victimized. With criminals make good and full use of their victims’ ignorance and vulnerability in financial crimes. Thus, it is our responsibility to protect our customers. We therefore must perform customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring to mitigate potential financial crimes and sanctions risks.