Authorities Get Tougher on Money Laundering With New System

Authorities will tighten up the government money tracking system to monitor any attempt to conduct money-laundering activities or finance terrorist causes.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Ministry of Economy announced yesterday that it would launch an improved intelligence and monitoring system. The new system will control the illegal flows of money in earnest from the end of this month.

The system processes various types of financial information and helps financial institutions monitor diverse categories of suspicious transactions and customers.

A senior FIU official explained, “If someone tries to launder money through a casino, we can detect it. Also, if someone attempts to finance a terrorist group, we can pinpoint the source. Our system’s accuracy has improved from 40% to over 60%. It will save more than 2 billion won a year.”

imsoo@donga.com