우리나라의 자금세탁 방지제도와 정책과제 - 금융기관의 역할 강화 방안을 중심으로

Money laundering is defined as the process of disguising the criminal proceeds from the prerequisite crimes such as narcotics, smuggling, bribery as the legitimate profits. This kind of money laundering is increasingly rising due to the rapid increase of international financial transactions, promoted by the fast globalization and integration of the world economy. Such legitimately transformed criminal profits can be used as sources of various other organized crimes. In this context, control of money laundering crimes is considered as one of very effective tools to prevent the expansion of various other crimes. In order to prevent money laundering crimes, each country should put more efforts to prepare laws and regulations for effective countermeasures against money laundering, and cooperate closely with each other. In this study, we, first, clarify the concept and effect of money laundering, and then discuss the roles and efforts of various international organizations, established to prevent money laundering. In addition, we examine our country's laws and regulations to control money laundering crimes, and then analyze the roles and issues of financial institutions, which themselves perform money laundering control tasks at the front line. Finally, some suggestions to enhance the roles of financial institutions for anti-money laundering are discussed.