NFTs: a New Frontier for Money Laundering 2022 | School of International Financial Services (SIFS) | 26 April 2022 | Online

Have seen their popularity skyrocket over the past two years with the price of tokens reaching up to $90 million. Legitimate collectors have flocked to the market where they can claim sole ownership of digital art, trading cards and even real estate. Criminals too however, have been drawn to this market attracted by immature anti-financial crime controls and plentiful naïve users. This webinar will cover what are, the different ways in which they materialise and the characteristics of users and why they might own them.

Also, to assess the inherent money laundering risks and draw on case studies to illustrate how these differ from ‘real world’ money laundering risks and discuss ways in which these risks can be mitigated using regulation but also by practical cyber security and compliance fixes. The webinar will conclude by summarising the ‘status quo’ and by looking ahead to what emerging risks might be on the horizon.

Content:
• What are NFTs and what is the extent of their ecosystem and use?
• What are the money laundering risks of NFTs and how can these be mitigated, both practically and with regulation?
• Are there emerging money laundering risks on the NFT horizon that we should be concerned about?

2022 Speakers

Allison Owen
Research Analyst, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Isabella Chase
Research Fellow, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)