Money Market Violations - Assignment Example

Money laundering refers to the process of concealing the sources or ways by which money is acquired. These processes of money laundering are varied and can be very much sophisticated depending on the intelligence level of the perpetrators. As such, criminals who carry out black market activities always undertake money laundering. Actually, virtually every country in the world today has practices of money laundering taking place. Estimations by these governments reveal that a lot of money is laundered and thus, evade taxation.

For instance, a study conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that the money laundered in the year 1996 was between 2 to 5 percent of the entire world economy. However, it may be quite difficult to estimate the amount of money laundered in a year or particular period as most of the activity goes unnoticed.Considerately, these illegal transactions have been taking place even amongst sanctioned countries with transfers occurring between them and other states. When such transactions occur, they violate the regulations set up that regulate money markets.

Prevention and detection of such illegal activities is the function of the government agencies tasked with such duties aided by the financial institutions. Getting a reliable estimate of the money that is laundered is quite difficult.The recent financial crisis in the United States of America led to a series of events around the world in what has been termed by most people as the global recession of 2008. To the Credit rating Agencies, this situation was one full of delinquency and foreclosures and resulted in a decline in the security backed by the mortgages offered.