The number of reported suspicious current and savings accounts, or CASA transactions, has increased in the previous three years.
This is according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s newest assessment of the Philippines’ exposure to external and internal threats based on suspicious transaction reports (STR) for 2018-2020.
In the assessment released on Wednesday, AMLC said  based on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates, the yearly amount of money laundered globally is expected to be between $800 billion and $2 trillion, or around P41.088 trillion to P102.72 trillion.
If the STRs in the study have a plausible linkage to a specific crime, the total quantity of STRs covered in this assessment accounts for 0.006 percent to 0.014 percent of total worldwide money laundered in 2018, 0.010 percent to 0.026 percent in 2019, and 0.033 percent to 0.083 percent in 2020.
“This is an indication that there is an increasing trend in the reported suspicious CASA transactions every year,” the country’s financial intelligence unit said.
Predicate crimes such as SRC violations, swindling, and child exploitation activities account for the majority of the total STRs covered in the report, accounting for 39.19 percent, 26.68 percent, and 17.99 percent, respectively, in terms of transaction frequency.
Swindling accounted for 70.82 percent of the total peso value of all STRs studied, with SRC violations accounting for 12.89 percent and drug-related activities accounting for 6.91 percent.
“Proceeds from majority of the high-risk and medium-risk predicate crimes have originated, circulated, and remained within the Philippine financial system except for child exploitation, child pornography, and terrorism-related activities,” the AMLC said.
It went on to explain that illegal funds for child exploitation, child pornography, and terrorism-related operations are funneled through other countries, with the Philippines serving as the final destination.
The top contributors in terms of amount created for proceeds that originated, circulated, and remained within the Philippines are SRC violations (P6.43 billion), swindling (P5.96 billion), drug trafficking (P3.43 billion), E-Commerce Act violations (P1.33 billion), and corruption-related crimes (P1.2 billion).
According to AMLC, 52,022 foreign inward remittances are being examined for inflows from plausible and identified sources.
BY MEYNARD DELA CERNA
