The rapid growth in the global economy has made international trade an increasingly attractive avenue to move illicit funds through financial transactions associated with the trade in goods and services. Trade-based money laundering (TBML) is a complex phenomenon since its constituent elements cut across not only sectoral boundaries but also national borders. The dynamic environment of international trade allows TBML to take multiple forms.

In 2006 the FATF released the report entitled Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML), in which it identified the three major methods used by criminal organisations and terrorist financers to move money for the purpose of disguising its origins and integrating it into the formal economy.

The 2012 Asia/Pacific Group (APG) Typologies Report on Trade-Based Money Laundering aims to update and extend the FATF study to identify current methods and techniques as well as to consider why so few TBML case investigations or prosecutions have been undertaken since the 2006 report.

The APG report studies the extent of prevalence of TBML and highlights methods, techniques and modus operandi for TBML and identifies red flags to detect and respond to TBML

Read the report http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Trade_Based_ML_APGReport.pdf