Leaving the EU will isolate the UK from neighbouring states and, as such, weaken its defences against illicit transactions.

The cost of fighting financial crime can be high where it is estimated that in the US the cost of anti money laundering compliance is estimated at $23.5 billion per year. European banks come close with $20 billion spent annually.

At first glance, a rich woman going on a spending spree in Harrods, the luxury department store in London, seems an unlikely entry point into the international financial underworld of laundered money and human rights abuses.

Deutsche Bank AG is facing broadening U.S. scrutiny as a leading Republican lawmaker joined Democratic colleagues in questioning the company’s steps to combat money-laundering amid reports that its U.S. unit may have been a key conduit for dirty cash.

Germany was sent a letter of formal notice, the first step of the EU legal procedure against states, while Belgium, Finland, France, Lithuania and Portugal received reasoned opinions, the second step of the procedure which could lead to fines. Other reasoned opinions were sent for the second time to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland, and Slovakia.

Danske Bank has promised to spend around $300 million to tighten safeguards against financial crime.

The European Commission added Saudi Arabia, Panama and four U.S. territories to a blacklist of nations it considers a threat because of lax controls on terrorism financing and money laundering, the EU executive said on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank's head office and other locations in Frankfurt were raided by 170 police officers and tax investigators on Thursday as part of a money laundering probe.

Canada has become a “pawn” for international money launderers who exploit the country’s weak laws that allow hidden ownership of real estate and other assets, a new report says.

Last week, the US Department of Justice announced charges against a Venezuelan businessman, Raul Gorrin Belisario, for his suspected role in a billion-dollar corruption scheme. Around 2010, Gorrin, Jimenez and others bought a bank in the Dominican Republic — Banco Peravia — for the purpose of laundering money and paying bribes to Venezuelan officials.

The plan is a response to alleged money-laundering scandals involving banks in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain and Cyprus, with schemes often executed through foreign branches inside the EU.