What Does Layering Mean in Money Laundering? (2024)

Risk & Compliance Glossary

What Does Layering Mean in Money Laundering? (1)

Many forms of criminal activity generate significant amounts of money. To avoid attracting the attention of law enforcement, criminals must find a way to disguise the source of their ill-gotten funds. That’s the goal of money laundering, which involves criminals engaging in a series of transactions to conceal the criminal origins of their money.

Money laundering involves three stages:

  1. A criminal (or those under their direction) introduces funds earned through criminal activity to the financial system.
  2. A money launderer (or the criminal themselves) engages in a series of transactions to create layers between the illegal source of the cash they control.
  3. The criminal moves laundered money back into the financial system.

The layering process

During the layering stage, the goal is to disconnect the money from the illegal activity that generated it. Generally, the more layers money passes through, the harder it becomes to connect the funds to criminal activity.

The goal of layering is to make the process of tracking money through each layer more difficult to accomplish. Layering can include changing the nature of the assets, i.e. cash, gold, casino chips, real-estate, etc.

Complex layering schemes involve sending the money around the globe using a series of transactions. The more countries the money enters and leaves, the harder it is to uncover the “dirty” source of the money.

Layering and AML

A complex layering scheme makes anti-money laundering (AML) operations challenging. Since they lack jurisdiction overseas, law enforcement must coordinate with their foreign counterparts, which can delay the tracking of the funds while complicating the document trail associated with the funds.

To complicate matters further, criminals often use shell companies, which engage in fraudulent transactions, such as the creation of fake invoices. Once the company receives payment for the fake invoice, those who control the shell company can return the proceeds or send them to another shell company as payment for a subsequent fake invoice.

Layering can involve electronic transactions such as wires and ACHs, paper transactions, and/or manual movement of the funds between countries using covert means. Those laundering the funds may also decide to use non-traditional financial systems, such as Hawala (Middle East), Hundi (India), or Hui Kuan (Hong Kong), which are alternative remittance systems that allow for the movement of money without doing so physically.

Learn more about RiskCenter | Financial Crime

What Does Layering Mean in Money Laundering? (2)

What Does Layering Mean in Money Laundering? (2024)

FAQs

What Does Layering Mean in Money Laundering? ›

Layering in money laundering is the process wherein a money laundering operation passes their illicit money through enough transactions that the paper trail leading back to both the origin of the money, as well as their own identities, becomes as difficult to trace as possible.

What does layering mean in money laundering? ›

Layering refers to moving money from one account to another and from one banking and financial institution to add layers of legitimate owners and avoid detection of the actual source of the funds and make it harder for authorities to track the initial source of the money.

What are the three layers of money laundering? ›

There are usually two or three phases to the laundering:
  • Placement.
  • Layering.
  • Integration / Extraction.

What is the layering stage of the AML life cycle? ›

Layering

Once the money has been put in place, the second stage is called layering or structuring. This involves breaking down large bulk funds into a series of smaller transactions. The idea is that these smaller transactions fall under the threshold of anti-money laundering regulations and won't set off any alarms.

What's the main goal of the layering stage of money laundering Quizlet? ›

The goal of money launderers during the layering stage is to conceal the source of the funds or assets. This is done through a series of layers of transactions that are generally numerous and can vary in form and complexity.

What is the meaning of layering? ›

the wearing of lightweight or unconstructed garments one upon the other, as to create a fashionable ensemble or to provide warmth without undue bulkiness or heaviness.

What are examples of layering? ›

In layering, one of the plant branches is covered with moist soil, and after some time, that branch develops roots and starts to grow as an individual plant. Commonly, jasmine and mint are artificially propagated by the process of layering.

Which of these is part of the layering stage in the money laundering process? ›

Money laundering stage #2: layering

For the purposes of layering, money can be moved through the purchase and sales of investments, or through a series of accounts at banks in different countries.

What is the purpose of layering? ›

The purpose of "layering" is to provide elaboration. Layering is a writing technique used to add depth and complexity to a story or character. It involves adding multiple layers of information to a story or character, often through the use of vivid descriptions, actions, and dialogue.

What is money laundering in simple words? ›

Money laundering involves disguising financial assets so they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them. Through money laundering, the criminal transforms the monetary proceeds derived from criminal activity into funds with an apparently legal source.

What is the $3000 rule? ›

Rule. The requirement that financial institutions verify and record the identity of each cash purchaser of money orders and bank, cashier's, and traveler's checks in excess of $3,000.

Is depositing $2000 in cash suspicious? ›

As long as the source of your funds is legitimate and you can provide a clear and reasonable explanation for the cash deposit, there is no legal restriction on depositing any sum, no matter how large. So, there is no need to overly worry about how much cash you can deposit in a bank in one day.

What is an example of smurfing? ›

Example 1: Cash Deposits

A criminal organization has $200,000 in illicit funds that it needs to launder. To avoid detection, they recruit ten smurfs, each tasked with depositing $10,000 in cash into different bank accounts over a few days.

How does layering work? ›

How does it work? The reason wearing multiple thin layers will keep you warmer than a single thicker layer is because warm air is trapped between the layers acting as an insulator. If you were then to remove a layer you would reduce the amount of heat trapped which would cool you down.

What is a layering strategy? ›

Layering is a strategy in high-frequency trading where a trader makes and then cancels orders that they never intend to have executed in hopes of influencing the stock price. For instance, to buy stock at a lower price, the trader initially places orders to sell at or below the market ask price.

What is the layering concept? ›

Layering is a process that is used to simplify network communication and help the host and server interact with each other quickly. It is an important part of the OSI model made to simplify the transmission process by separating communication into pieces that can be sent easily and securely.

What does layering clothes do? ›

The purpose of the inner layer is to draw sweat away from the skin to the outer layers to make them feel warmer. If a piece of clothing does not transfer moisture well, it is not strictly an inner layer garment but simply a mid-layer garment.

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