The World Bank

Financial integrity and good governance are essential elements of the World Bank’s role in assisting the economic development of developing countries. The World Bank’s efforts to combat corruption and illicit financial flows is the task of the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) and the Financial Market Integrity Unit.

The tasks of the World Bank include:

1. Technical assistance: through workshops, mentoring, practical training and advice, countries are given assistance in drafting laws and regulations, setting up an effective institutional framework, assessing the money laundering and terrorist financing risk to their economy and their financial system, training supervisory authorities of the financial sector, investigators, prosecutors or judges, and developing and implementing effective systems for the disclosure of assets for government officials.

2. Policy development: through cooperation and research the Financial Market Integrity Unit contributes to international debates by providing a unique point of view, linking money laundering prevention to good governance and the fight against corruption, financial inclusion, the ease of doing business, taxation, recovering stolen assets and other development challenges.

3. Assessment of countries’ anti-money laundering and terrorist financing frameworks to determine their effectiveness and potential risk zones, based on independent diagnoses or as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Programme.

The Financial Market Integrity Unit is very active within the FATF and similar regional bodies. The Financial Market Integrity Unit also works with several bilateral partners, either by supporting or contributing to the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing programme, or by jointly delivering coordinated training sessions.