Coronavirus: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, millions of people have locked themselves inside their house not because they are well conscious and responsible citizens rather they are forced to. The world has seen a lot of dark sides of the economic impact in the coronavirus but as life continues many people who are blessed to have a stable job are now exploring the bright side of coronavirus by giving a new dimension to the familial bonds by working from home. It also appears the planet has incredibly benefitted from coronavirus locked down as Global air pollution linked to increased death rates for cancer, heart disease, stroke, and asthma have drastically reduced which otherwise would have caused millions of premature deaths in the world. As it stands, Bluer skies, cleaner hands, clearer water, and fresh air – A gift, the planet has gifted itself on earth day celebrated this year on 22^nd April amid the coronavirus. The Financial industry also has seen a fewer number of AML cases & fines from regulators as COVID19 completely disrupted demand of illicit drug trafficking and successive money laundering measures.

The other aspect, the terrifying one, substantially marginalized people for whom ‘No work means no pay’ continuing the social distancing against the invisible virus is nearly impossible. Also within the month of locked down, millions are jobless and consequentially already ran out of savings. The persistent locked down has impacted the economy, with Businesses cutting jobs as demands of non-essential goods & services have been drastically reduced. Study shows that an increase in the number of job cuts and subsequent unemployment can lead to a growth of unprecedented criminal activities.

The ugliest aspect, The Global health emergency has disrupted access to traditional Banking channels, likewise, traditional money laundering measures reduced drastically and unlike before criminals and launderers are now struggling to clean money what otherwise would be considered ‘Dirty’. Although in this terrible situation while businesses are cutting jobs but money launderers only seem to have wide opened the opportunities of employment to people in need of money. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Financial action task force (FATF) & Interpol have most recently warned financial institutions to carefully detect Schemes like money mule & other COVID frauds that money launderers started exploiting over pandemic anxiety to bypass suspicion & customer due diligence measures in financial institutions.