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Despite the vulnerability of rapidly developing and emerging market economies, researchers have paid less attention to the determination of the size of money laundering (ML) in these economies, including the United Arab Emirates (the UAE). Therefore, this paper aims to estimate the magnitude of ML in the UAE between 1975 and 2020 based on the currency demand approach (CDA).

The study uses the Gregory–Hansen cointegration technique alongside the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure to estimate the CDA model.

The results illustrate that an amount equivalent to about 19.034% of the GDP is laundered in the UAE between 1975 and 2020, on average, with the value lying between 15.129% and 23.121%. In addition, the results demonstrate the importance of the real estate market, gold trade, remittance channels and the size of the underground economy in facilitating the laundering of illicit funds in the country.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is the pioneering attempt at estimating the amount of illicit funds laundered in the UAE. Besides, the adoption of a novel, yet robust, approach based on the modification of the CDA technique also sets the study apart as it ensures a correct, clear, unambiguous and indisputable estimate of the magnitude of ML is obtained. In addition, it is expected that the outcome of the study will expand the frontiers of knowledge among policy makers and relevant agencies and ensure the adoption of the most efficient and effective measures to curb the ML menace in the country.

This paper aims to analyse the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) of Canada, Australia, The Netherlands and India, focussing on key internal and external processes, such as the exchange of information, operations and compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The paper relies on secondary sources to compare and assess the practices and strategies employed by FIUs within these jurisdictions.

The paper relies on secondary sources to compare and assess the practices and strategies used by FIUs within these jurisdictions.

The ability to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in countries is influenced by several internal and external factors, including the efficiency of their FIUs’ and compliance with FATF recommendations. The analysis of FIUs across the countries demonstrates a raft of multifaceted challenges and concerns. Yet, when it comes to compliance with FATF’s recommendations, shared concerns emerge, hinting at the complex interplay between country-specific operations and global compliance standards. The paper recommends enhancements to the FIUs’ operational efficiency and overall effectiveness in combating financial crimes.

The paper’s findings are limited to openly available data (such as annual reports and internet sources) for the respective countries. The paper relies on the transparency of FIUs through public media, focusing on comparing and analysing the FIUs of only four specific countries, which limits the generalisations of the findings.

This paper is significant for policymakers and FIU authorities, as they strive to improve the effectiveness of their units and assess their performance in alignment with international standards. The comparative analysis of the FIUs of India, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands provides valuable insights and recommendations that can inform policymakers and operational strategies towards enhancing how FIUs function globally.

This paper offers a unique comparative analysis of the FIUs of India, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands. Its findings have practical implications for policymakers and FIU authorities towards enhancing performance against international AML/CFT standards and promoting global cooperation.

The purpose of the present work is to improve the industry performance by identifying and quantifying the risks faced by the Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI). The risk values for the prominent risks and overall industry are determined based on the four risk parameters, which would help determine the most contributive risks for mitigation.

An extensive literature survey was done to identify the risks, which were also validated by industry experts. The finalized risks were then evaluated using the fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) method, which is the most suitable approach for the risk assessment with parameters having a set of different risk levels.

The three most contributive sub-risks are counterfeit drugs, demand fluctuations and loss of customers due to partners' poor service performance, while the main risks obtained are demand, financial and logistics. Also, the overall risk value indicates that the industry faces medium to high risk.

The study identifies the critical risks which need to be mitigated for an efficient industry. The industry is most vulnerable to the demand risk category. Therefore, the managers should minimize this risk by mitigating its sub-risks, like demand fluctuations, bullwhip effect, etc. Another critical sub-risk, the counterfeit risk, should be managed by adopting advanced technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc.

There is insufficient literature focusing on risk quantification. Therefore, this work addresses this gap and obtains the industry's most critical risks. It also discusses suitable mitigation strategies for better industry performance.

The pharmaceutical industry faces multiple risks that adversely affect its performance. Within these risks, some dependencies have been observed, which help in streamlining the mitigation efforts. Therefore, the present work identifies and categorizes various risks/sub-risks in cause–effect groups, considering uncertainty in the decision-making process.

An extensive literature review and experts' opinions were utilized to identify and finalize the risks faced by the pharmaceutical industry. For further analysis, data collection was done using a questionnaire focusing on finalized risks. Based on the data, the causal relation under uncertainty between various risks/sub-risks was identified using a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique, i.e. intuitionistic fuzzy DEMATEL, in a pairwise manner.

The results show that the three most prominent risk categories are operational, demand/customer/market and financial. Also, out of the seven main risks, only supplier and operational are categorized within the effect group and the rest, i.e. financial, demand, logistics, political and technology within the cause group. The sub-risks within each category have also been categorized into cause–effect groups. The mitigation of cause group risks will help in economize the financial resources and improve the performance and resilience of the industry.

There is insufficient research on identifying the causality among the pharmaceutical industry risks. Additionally, an extensive discussion on the identified cause–effect groups is also missing in the literature. Therefore, in this work, efforts have been made to determine the prominent risks for the Indian pharmaceutical industry that will be helpful for channelizing the resources to mitigate risks for a resilient industry.

The purpose of the study is to examine the available literature to comprehend what the underground banking system is, for what purposes this method is used and how policymakers should proceed to address this issue.

The approach involved conducting this study and combining it with a critical analysis of the available literature as well as the available historical data. The sources the study has explored include government documents, public hearings, academic articles, case studies and articles available on the internet.

The study revealed prevention of illegal proceeds is critical, still regulating one entity, is a phenomenon of Boyle’s law, “squeezing the balloon”. If one end of the balloon is squeezed, making the volume smaller, the pressure inside increases, making the un-squeezed part of the balloon expand out. The real issue is not how criminals transfer their illegal earnings; it is the criminals themselves. Hence, the policy decision on this issue needs to be carefully considered.

Due to the complexity of the operating system of Undiyal, this study had a number of limitations, as do many others. Firstly, there are no records of the Undiyal agents or the volumes of transactions publicly available. However, comprehending the scope of the underground operation that exists in the country is quite difficult.

The study contributes to the academic researchers grasping what type of future research should be focused on in this area according to the study.

From the point of view of its practical application, the study seeks to resolve social issues that the middle-class population experiences on a daily basis and that have a huge and adverse impact on GDP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the background and significance of criminalization of self-money laundering in China and to analyze its application in judicial practice.

This paper introduces the international and domestic background of the criminalization of self-money laundering, demonstrates the theoretical basis and practical significance of the changes of Article 191 in the 11th amendment to the criminal law and puts forward solutions to some controversial issues in judicial practice.

The 11th amendment to the Criminal Law, which came into force in March 2021, criminalizes self-money laundering under Article 191 and has brought an impact on the traditional theory of criminal law. There are no similar amendments to the other two crimes, namely, Article 312 and Article 349, which lead to some confusion in the judicial practice, especially in the understanding of the number of crimes, and the meaning of proceeds of crime. This paper puts forward solutions to some controversial issues in judicial practice.

This paper introduces the criminalization of self-money laundering in the 11th amendment to the criminal law in China, presents a comprehensive description of and comments on the difference between the Article 191 and its similar articles, namely, Article 312 and Article 349, to make a well understanding in the application of law in judicial practice, which would be beneficial to theoretical researchers and judicial professionals.

This study aims to convey the understanding of the ecosystem – how “hundi” works on the border trade between Myanmar and northern Thailand, which is an informal transfer system and is widely used as an alternative banking system. Even though the role of hundi is unable to declare the sources of money under the standard settlement of formal banking system, a failure to operate of its official mechanism are carrying using hundi, as a financial platform across the border between Thailand and Myanmar. This study surveys the best practice mechanism for the regional and international cooperation.

This paper draws on relevant literature, open-source reporting, and interviews with more than 30 interviewees on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Interviewees includes border-trader, money changer, money transfer operators, business leaders, hundi operators, immigrant labors, government officials and commercial banking staffs.

This study provides a unique insight of hundi system, which work as the alternative mode of formal banking. It is an informal fund transfer payment platform used on the border between Thailand and Myanmar in the past five decades. It insists that hundi plays a significant role in both substitution and complementary on the trade and payment across the border of Myanmar–Thailand. Even though confronting with the barriers of financing of terrorism (anti money laundering AML/combating the financing of terrorism CFT) risk, the competition with the expanding and modernizing formal banking sector, and the introduction of Fintech and mobile money services. In the short term, these are unlikely to eliminate the hundi system completely, but may instead push hundi operators towards adopting these networks and technologies in their own operations.

This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are seeking to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi.

This is the latest work for border trade payment or trade financing role of hundi which has hidden under the informal market of the border for several decades. It has few research of hundi on border trade and payment, particularly after the military coup in 2021 which made hundi return to be on the spotlight and simultaneous mechanism of border trade and payment ecosystem of Myanmar. This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are eager to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi, especially during the hardship.

This paper aims to focus on the need for an enhanced anti-money laundering (AML) regulation for decentralised finance (DeFi) to protect the integrity of global financial systems against illicit activities. Research highlights the requirement for a robust regulatory strategy for the fast-paced DeFi evolvement.

This study used doctrinal legal research by analysing legislation, which involved creating use cases to illustrate different aspects of potential illicit activities via the DeFi ecosystem. Various DeFi applications were assessed for the potential regulatory responses and outcomes.

This paper offers valuable insight into the regulatory challenges presented by DeFi. This study addresses the blind spots leveraged by criminals afforded by the DeFi’s decentralised nature. This paper offers a comprehensive examination of DeFi regulatory challenges based on use-case scenarios and provides recommendations for regulators on how to address them effectively.

This paper proposes measures for regulatory authorities to minimise money laundering risks through new channels such as decentralised exchanges, non-custodial wallets and cross-chain bridges. This study concludes with the future directions for DeFi regulation and AML compliance.

This study aims to investigate whether the introduction of innovative financial products increases welfare for low-income households working in the manufacturing sector. Specifically, the authors measure the impact of mobile financial services (MFSs) on economic opportunities and wellbeing of garment factory workers in Bangladesh.

The study is based on Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach. Close to 400 textile factory workers were interviewed about their experience using Bangladesh’s most popular MFS, and how their household welfare has changed over time. Results were tabulated and analyzed with simple statistical tools.

While there remains an abundance of friction in the system, financial innovation still assisted low-income households in savings, and expedited and secured their fund transfers. The introduction of the new technology, especially when it is made mandatory, seems to have disempowered married women by reducing their financial independence from their husbands.

This study should help policy makers and international bodies in their efforts to design and support the inclusive growth of mobile financial technology.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently relaunched Nigeria’s cashless policy initiative which seeks to reduce financial crime and tax avoidance, decrease cash dependency, advance the adoption of digital financial services (DFS), decrease the risks to the payment system and foster financial inclusion. This study aims to identify the unique challenges of going cashless in Nigeria, particularly in terms of infrastructural, exclusionary and cost implications of the policy on the average citizens.

The author applies a doctrinal research methodology to identify and reflect on key challenges of the cashless policy from the economic, regulatory and transactional perspectives.

The cashless policy initiative in Nigeria heralds value for financial integrity, financial policy regulation and user convenience. The mode of introduction, however, ushers in significant challenges and hardly considers Nigeria’s inadequate payment infrastructure, persistent financial exclusion, low levels of financial and digital literacy and capability, high cost of using DFS and pervasive proclivity for cash. As Nigerians adjust albeit inconveniently to the policy, the CBN can ameliorate the hardship by strengthening the payment infrastructure, particularly for digital payments, fostering consumer trust by safeguarding user funds and enabling consumer preferences.

Research materials include the national regulator’s policy documents and newspaper articles that have not been published in formal reports but non-the-less adequately mirror the policy intention of the CBN and the lived experiences of Nigerians.

This study identifies the practical steps and regulatory measures that the CBN can take to improve acceptance and meaningful and sustainable adoption of the cashless policy by the majority of Nigerians.

The recommendations that are proffered provide some rich insights to inform regulatory direction for the CBN to seamlessly phase-in the cashless policy and consequently drive down financial exclusion in Nigeria.

This study contributes to the policy discussion around the introduction of the cashless Nigeria project. The doctrinal research method highlights the policy intentions of the regulator in juxtaposition with lived experiences of Nigerians. This study offers recommendations to bolster financial inclusion, stability and integrity.