WHY IN NEWS
- Rashtriya Raksha University announced a BRICS capacity-building programme on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism.
- The programme reflects growing concern over cross-border financial crime, digital payment abuse, shell structures and terror financing.
- Effective AML/CFT systems combine preventive regulation, suspicious-transaction reporting, financial intelligence, investigation and international cooperation.
TOP DATA & FACTS
- Host: Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU).
- Location: Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- Duration: 5 days.
- Start date: 7 September 2026.
- Context: India's BRICS Chairship 2026.
- AML means Anti-Money Laundering.
- CFT means Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
- Financial Intelligence Units receive and analyse suspicious financial information.
- Money laundering commonly involves placement, layering and integration as analytical stages.
- Terror financing may involve both illegal and apparently legal sources.
- Beneficial ownership transparency helps identify the natural persons behind legal entities.
- Risk-based supervision allocates greater scrutiny to higher-risk customers, products and sectors.
- Cross-border cooperation is essential because illicit funds move across jurisdictions.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
- Anti-money-laundering regimes expanded globally from drug-crime proceeds toward broader predicate offences.
- The FATF became a central international standard-setting body for AML/CFT.
- After major terrorist attacks, financial intelligence became increasingly important to counter-terrorism.
- digital finance created new monitoring opportunities and new risks.
- BRICS cooperation adds a plurilateral capacity-building channel among major emerging economies.
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
- Money laundering distorts markets and can inflate asset prices.
- Financial crime undermines tax revenue and legitimate business competition.
- Compliance imposes costs on banks and financial firms.
- Risk-based regulation is preferable to indiscriminate de-risking.
- Strong AML systems can improve trust in financial markets.
GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
- Financial crime exploits differences among jurisdictions.
- Trade routes, offshore centres and cross-border payment networks can be misused.