Money laundering pricier for banks

The cost of fighting money laundering has risen 58% since 2004, according to a survey by KPMG LLP. The KPMG study, which looked at 224 banks in 55 countries, estimates that money-laundering flows are in excess of $1 trillion annually. Spending to combat money laundering has increased by 70% or more in North America. KPMG said banks had predicted in a 2004 study that costs would increase 43% over the following three years. Banks now predict that costs will increase 34% over the next three years, according to the survey. The survey found that the heaviest spending is on transaction monitoring and staff training costs. The banks said the number of suspicious activity reports being generated grew 70%, including 42% of banks saying the number of reports has risen "substantially." Furthermore, the jump in cross-border mergers makes it more complicated to monitor a customer's transactions. Forty-two percent of North American banks said they are capable of monitoring across borders, compared to 41% of banks globally that said they were not capable of tracking transactions across other countries and 26% that said they were partially capable. KPMG is based in New York.