Dampening corruption and money laundering: emissions from soft laws
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-10-2020-0115 |
| Published date | 18 January 2021 |
| Date | 18 January 2021 |
| Pages | 848-859 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial compliance/regulation,Financial crime |
| Author | Ejike Ekwueme |
Dampening corruption and money
laundering: emissions
from soft laws
Ejike Ekwueme
School of Advanced Study, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies,
University of London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to bring to the fore that soft laws should be taken very seriously
because they have demonstrated their importance in helping to reduce corruption and money laundering.
Liberalisationof the markets and globalisation, undoubtedly,enabled the increasein the volume of commercial
and economic interactions among naturaland legal persons. As a result, the generation of profits and losses
are noticeable. However, it became evident thatsome of the actors involved in corruption endeavour to dock
the regulatory radars by way of laundering their illicit wealth. It is as a result of this, that the authorities
reacted to checkmate this by way of fashioning out legislations that have cross-border and national
characteristics.However, it wasas a result of the inadequaciesnoticeable in the Conventionsand their inability
to contain the malaise that the soft laws surfaced to fill the lacunae to help dampen the momentum of
corruption and moneylaundering. These significant softlaws include but not limited to the FinancialAction
Task Force (FATF), Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), Basel Committee on
BankingSupervision (BCBS), WolfsbergGroup (WG) and InternationalChamber of Commerce(ICC). Although
reservationswere raised as to the composition of their decision-making apparatus,it is evident that countries
still adhere to their pronouncements by way of adaptation, and they have made significant contributions in
reducingcorruption and money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper relies on primarylegal documentations such as but not
limited to the Financial Action Task Force, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Organisation of
Economic Cooperation and Development,Wolfsberg Group, International Chamber of Commerce, theUnited
Nations Convention on Corruption 2003, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 and the United Kingdom
BriberyAct 2010.
Findings –There is undoubtedly glaringindications that soft laws have made very significant impact to
slow down the level of corruption and money laundering in many polities. It is evidently clear that most
countries usuallyadapt the nuances of these laws into their domestic legislations in ordernot to be frozen out
from the financial and economic activities of the dominant wider members. Evidentially, some of these
countries may have been excluded from the core decision-making apparatus of the organisations with
particular reference to mostly the developingcountries. On the whole, the soft laws are a welcome relief in
view of the impact thatthey have made.
Research limitations/implications –This paper is addressed to policy makers who are concerned on the
negative implications of the scourge of money laundering and corruption.They should continue to inculcate the
emissions that usually come from soft laws when formulating theirp oliciesin planning for economic growth.
Originality/value –The originality of this paper lies on the fact thatit is essential that we awaken the
importanceof soft laws in containing the malaise asit has become evident that excuses have beenmade that it
was forced on some of the recipientparticipants.
Keywords OECD, FATF, Corruption, Money laundering, ICC, Hard laws, Soft laws, BCBS, WG
Paper type Research paper
The author wishes to thank and acknowledge the assistance provided by Dr Gabriel Ndive and other
anonymous reviewer/s for the comments provided on an earlier draft of this article. All remaining
errors are entirely my responsibility.
JMLC
24,4
848
Journalof Money Laundering
Control
Vol.24 No. 4, 2021
pp. 848-859
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-10-2020-0115
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