Let’s start off with the most important info: Anti-money laundering (AML) policies are basically a collection of laws and regulations designed to constrain or uncover illegal financial activities. Simply said, AML tackles money laundering, a financial crime where criminals strive to camouflage dirty money as legitimate.
Money laundering has long been a scourge of the global financial system. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports that the average percentage of money laundered per year stands at around 2-5% of the global GDP, or even higher. However, this malicious process has gained further momentum in recent years due to the introduction of unique and non-regulated financial products like virtual currencies. Fully comprehending digital assets’ security issues, our team at Bitnomics has implemented the highest standards of AML procedures to protect all crypto transactions and funds.
That said, let us now understand how money laundering works, what is the extent of this intricate criminal activity, and why AML is an essential code.
How does money laundering work?
Money laundering follows three basic steps, which involve complicated proceedings aimed at turning the illicit funds into apparent legal assets. They are:
- Placement: This stage determines how the illegitimate funds are handled and stored. Most commonly, money is piled via ‘smurfing’ or placed in cash-based businesses. Funds can also be transferred to offshore companies and trusts where owners’ identities are hidden.
- Layering: It involves multiple layers of complex transactions and maneuvers to obscure the trail of criminal funds, slashing all connections from the source.
- Integration: It refers to the eventual integration of laundered money into the economy as seemingly legal funds.
Why is AML protocol necessary?
First, AML is highly important as laundered money sometimes facilitates terror financing and other high-end crimes like human or drug trafficking. Besides this, anti-money laundering laws are essential to prevent the destabilization of economic balance, ensuring the integrity of financial systems.
Almost all financial platforms and exchanges, like Bitnomics, instate AML compliance to enhance the customers’ confidence by protecting their funds from the malice of corruption and embezzlement. Moreover, institutions also implement AML to avoid negligence penalties and safeguard their brand reputation against the detrimental effects of money laundering schemes.
What is our anti-money laundering policy?
We at Bitnomics have divided this policy into three levels. In addition to the requirements detailed below, our Compliance Department may request additional documents in some cases. Note that the following criteria are relevant for individual clients. If you represent a company or organization, you can find more info on our websites, or you can contact us and we’d be happy to answer any question you have.
If you wish to exchange less than 15K Euros with Bitnomics, we’ll ask you for live identity verification. In addition, you’ll need to present us with an ID of some sort, and proof of residence, alongside a declaration of crypto purchase. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to obtain it, we’ll help you with that.
If you wish to exchange 15K-50K Euros, we’ll ask you to present all the proof we require from those who exchange less than 15K, in addition to these: An e-signed source of funds form, and a document that proves the source of funds.
Those who want to exchange more than 50K Euros, will have to live up to two additional requirements: A compliance video call, and an e-signed purchase questionnaire.
The list of requirements may seem tiring, but it’s necessary. Bitnomics is committed to ensuring, in favor of all, that only legal funds are being used in its interface. Check our site for further information
