'The Price of Compliance' - An Examination of the Decision-Making Process of Financial Compliance Actors within the United Kingdom's Anti-Money

'The Price of Compliance' - An Examination of the Decision-Making Process
of Financial Compliance Actors within the United Kingdom's Anti-Money
Laundering Regulatory Regime.The threat of money laundering (ML) to contemporary society has received notable attention
domestically and internationally. In an attempt to combat this global phenomenon, increased
compliance measures were introduced targeting purported 'gatekeepers' at risk of enabling ML.
Financial institutions in the United Kingdom (UK), deemed to be amongst these 'gatekeepers', are
subject to a stringent compliance regime. The recent 'FinCEN Files' leak exposes how the world's
largest financial institutions facilitated large-scale ML and the complicity of the UK's financial
institutions in enabling the flow of illicit monies generated from criminal activities such as organised
crimes and political corruption from low-income countries (ICIJ, 2020).The research aims to develop an in-depth understanding of how financial professionals' perceptions
and attitudes affect the determination of risk and suspicion; two concepts central to the
implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) measures. This research will employ a qualitative
methodology by conducting semi-structured interviews with compliance actors within financial
institutions to explore their decision-making process. Accordingly, the findings may positively
contribute to AML literature by practically informing better monitoring and reporting practices.