Banking and money exchange sectors are the most probable establishments for money laundering or terrorist financing operations. According to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), they accounted for 98 percent of the alerts in the last 6 years. The duration between 2018 to 2019 saw the highest number of alerts recorded the in the unit’s history.
Statistics prepared by a local Arabic daily based on official figures, indicate that the FIU received 5776 alerts of suspicious activity of money laundering and terrorist financing from 2014 to 2020
During 6 years of observations, the unit received the most alerts on suspicions on money laundering or terrorist financing from banks and money exchange firms. From these two sectors, 63 percent of the alerts (3,541 alerts) were submitted by the banks and the rest came from Money Exchanges (2,120 alerts)
The Gold, jewelry, and precious metals sector witnessed 6 notifications in 6 years and the Finance and Investment sector witnessed 11 notifications during 6 years under the study.
Concerned sources told the daily that the Financial Action Task Force in the Middle East and North Africa (MENAFATV) has scheduled field visits for the mutual evaluation of the processes in the second round of Kuwait from March 6 to 22.
