Purpose

This paper aims to provide an empirical analysis of the effects of regulatory enforcement and customer risk determinants on money laundering risk judgment. The study further explores the moderating impact of regulatory enforcement on compliance officers in the banking and money service business (MSB) sectors. The analysis is conducted to find the important factors that contribute to the issues of risk judgement among compliance officers to establish effective anti-money laundering (AML) and countering financing of terrorism compliance at the financial institutions, as highlighted in the National Risk Assessment Report 2017 by the Central Bank of Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental study with four different scenarios of case studies distributed to 124 compliance officers at the banking and MSB sectors was conducted via online platforms. The paper uses a quantitative approach via structural equation modelling.

Findings

The result shows a significant effect of customer risk determinants and regulatory enforcement on money laundering risk judgement, taking into account competency as the control measure. A further test on the interaction effects of both determinants shows a significant result on the money laundering risk judgement. The empirical evidence indicated that regulatory enforcement influenced compliance officers’ money laundering risk judgement and suspicious transaction report submission. In other words, the banking and MSB sectors’ AML compliance significantly depends on the regulators’ enforcement activity.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to two independent variables: regulatory enforcement and customer risk determinants. Future studies may consider other factors affecting compliance officers’ money laundering risk judgement, such as technical competency, knowledge management, digitalization and technology and ethical issues.

Practical implications

This study provides several theoretical and practical implications. Emphasizing the excellent quality of judgement and, eventually, good quality of reporting the suspicious transactions will not be achieved merely from enforcing fines and punishment, but comprehensive measures must be taken. Increasing the competency and training, educating the compliance officers, supporting the industry and practitioners with incentives and digitalization, enhancing the campaign and awareness among the public and standardizing the policy shall be the good initiatives for the regulatory enforcement to establish.

Originality/value

This paper provides a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge and fulfills the significant gaps in the literature on money laundering, not to mention, the integration between behavioural studies and anti-money laundering compliance, which has scarcely been statistically evident from the research studies.

中文翻译：

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马来西亚金融机构合规官员对洗钱风险的判断：客户风险决定因素和监管执法的影响

目的

本文旨在对监管执法和客户风险决定因素对洗钱风险判断的影响进行实证分析。该研究进一步探讨了监管执法对银行和货币服务业务 (MSB) 部门合规官员的缓和影响。正如《2017 年国家风险评估报告》所强调的，该分析旨在找出导致合规官员风险判断问题的重要因素，以在金融机构建立有效的反洗钱 (AML) 和打击恐怖主义融资合规性由马来西亚中央银行。

设计/方法/方法

通过在线平台向银行和 MSB 部门的 124 名合规官员分发了四种不同情景的案例研究。本文使用通过结构方程建模的定量方法。

发现

结果表明，考虑到能力作为控制措施，客户风险决定因素和监管执法对洗钱风险判断有显着影响。对两个决定因素的交互作用的进一步测试表明，洗钱风险判断具有重要意义。经验证据表明，监管执法影响了合规人员的洗钱风险判断和可疑交易报告提交。换言之，银行和 MSB 部门的反洗钱合规性在很大程度上取决于监管机构的执法活动。

研究限制/影响

本研究仅限于两个独立变量：监管执行和客户风险决定因素。未来的研究可能会考虑影响合规人员洗钱风险判断的其他因素，例如技术能力、知识管理、数字化以及技术和道德问题。

实际影响

这项研究提供了一些理论和实践意义。强调优秀的判断力，最终实现对可疑交易的良好报告质量，不能仅仅通过罚款和处罚来实现，而必须采取综合措施。提高能力和培训，教育合规人员，以激励和数字化支持行业和从业人员，提高公众的宣传和意识，规范政策，是监管执法的良好举措。

原创性/价值

本文为知识体系提供了宝贵的贡献，并填补了洗钱文献中的重大空白，更不用说行为研究与反洗钱合规性之间的整合，这在研究中几乎没有统计上的证据。