Public awareness of money laundering crimes in Hong Kong : a comparison between financial and non-financial industry

Abstract

This study aims to examine public awareness about money laundering (i.e., its mechanism, victimisation, and media coverage) and public recognition of government controls and communal supports. It is important and worth studying because it is a crime which often involves financial losses far exceeding the losses of other crimes, such as theft, and robbery, and if left unattended it will create severe damage to the city’s judicial system’s reputation and the stability of the financial system. The government has pledged to fight against money laundering with considerable resources injected into industrial awareness promotion and regulatory enhancement; nevertheless it appears that there have been limited resources deployed to promote the general public’s awareness. It is important to understand whether the existing government approach has created an unbalanced awareness level amongst different sectors, and how the current level of awareness may affect the ongoing combat against money laundering. This will help the government to strengthen the communal risk alertness and reduce money laundering crimes in the long run. An extensive review of literature could not find any research assessing public awareness of money laundering in Hong Kong. Thus, this paper attempts to understand the level of awareness of such crime and fill the gap in academic research. The research involved semi-structured interviews with five professionals who worked in a bank, insurance company, public relations agency, medical equipment consultancy and law enforcement agency. The data were collected during the period of Oct 2020 to May 2021. The participants exhibited insufficient understanding of money laundering and inattention to money laundering-related media coverage. Research findings suggest that the awareness and knowledge level amongst the financial and non-financial sectors are both limited, and that the research participants all recognised money laundering as a crime which has a low victimisation risk and is irrelevant to them.