Evaluation of the Role of Brokerage Companies in Combating Money Laundering and Providing Policy Recommendations

Money laundering is one of the organized crimes that has become particularly important for most countries today because it has created many obstacles in the path of economic, social and cultural development of societies all over the world. In recent decades, with the considerable growth of new technologies, the pace and shape of money transfer has also changed, making the operations more complicated and combating this economic problem. Money laundering is any kind of act or attempt to conceal or change the appearance of illegitimate proceeds resulting from criminal activities in such a manner that they appear to be proceeds originated from legal sources. Money laundering or purification of money is a criminal activity that crosses even the geographical boundaries of countries and is not restricted to the same country. Money laundering has many detrimental effects on the economy. Pollution and instability of the economy, weakening of the private sector and privatization programs, corrupt government structure, distrust of the people, rising government spending, declining government tax revenues, establishing instability in the global market are just a part of these effects that shows the great importance of combating money laundering operations. Capital market is one of the businesses exposed to money laundering and taking into account the foundations of the capital market, brokerage companies are deemed as a gateway to the country's capital market and this issue distinguishes the position and importance of stockbroking companies in identifying and preventing money laundering operations. In order to be able to succeed in this endeavor they must always have a clear and up-to-day understanding of the new methods of Money laundering technique and therefore be able to identify and combat them by adopting appropriate and effective solutions. In this paper, first, the concept of money laundering is expressed and after explaining the concepts of money laundering and its study and executive background, anti-money laundering solutions, especially by stock brokerage companies, are presented.