Increased Risk of Financial Crime as Investments Boom
Investments of over SEK 1,000 billion in the green transformation of the industry in Norrbotten and Västerbotten will involve a range of projects, including new production facilities as well as expansion and rebuilding of existing facilities.
The infrastructure, energy- and transportation sectors are typically high risk, and the experience in Sweden so far suggests that there is a clear need for more effective systems for risk assessment and due diligence of third parties. Louise Brown, Director Financial Crime Prevention, was invited by SVT to comment on the potential risks that current developments can involve.
“Based on experiences so far, we can estimate that 30-50 billion SEK of the investments will end up with criminal actors. A lot of money is invested within a short period of time, and a sense of urgency. There is little time to carry out proper risk assessments, not to mention monitoring and follow up. This attracts organised crime which is already a significant problem in sectors including construction and other labour intensive sectors. As always, the criminal proceeds will need to be laundered. This could become a perfect storm of both economic crime and unsustainable business. Now it is up to both financial and non-financial market players to equally speed up and strengthen their general risk assessment capabilities in order to understand this rapidly changing risk environment,” says Louise Brown.
Find the full clip on SVT here.
