Services provided by banks, exchange offices, and other financial institutions that allow individuals and businesses to convert one currency into another. This includes both physical cash as well as digital conversions, typically offered at airports, banks, or dedicated currency exchange outlets. They can also handle large-volume foreign exchange transactions for institutional clients, with competitive exchange rates and applicable fees.
Main/
Currency Exchange Services
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Code
PS0106
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Name
Currency Exchange Services
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Version
1.0
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Category
Payment, Transfer & Remittance Services
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Created
2025-03-14
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Modified
2025-04-02
Related Techniques
- Unregistered currency exchangers handle cross-currency conversions without adhering to licensing requirements.
- Criminals exploit these unregulated services to rapidly convert illicit proceeds, concealing transaction records and origin of funds.
- Criminals or brokers convert illicit U.S. dollars to local currency (or vice versa) outside official banking channels, exploiting alternative or parallel exchange rates.
- By advertising favorable or discounted rates, brokers attract importers seeking cheaper dollars, allowing illicit funds to merge seamlessly with legitimate transactions.
- Criminals convert proceeds from diamond sales into multiple currencies, obscuring the trail of funds.
- Repeated or structured exchanges across different jurisdictions create layering that hinders law enforcement tracking.
- Facilitate converting stolen public funds into different currencies, obscuring the financial paper trail.
- Repeated or large-scale currency swaps can layer funds, making it more difficult for authorities to track the illicit proceeds.
- Criminals convert lower denominations into higher ones to reduce the physical volume of smuggled cash.
- Exploit weaker AML oversight in some exchange outlets to facilitate rapid conversion or integration of illicit funds once smuggled.
- Criminals exchange smaller-denomination bills for high-value notes, drastically reducing the bulk and weight of illicit cash.
- Complicit or negligent exchange providers may knowingly facilitate these transactions, bypassing standard banking scrutiny.
- The resulting concentrated cash is easier to conceal and transport across borders undetected.
- Offenders manipulate or distort exchange rates during invoice settlements, obscuring the real trade value.
- Converting illicit proceeds into multiple currencies through repeated transactions makes it harder to trace the initial source of the funds.
- Controlled or complicit currency exchange locations allow criminals to commingle illicit funds with genuine currency conversions, concealing the true origin of funds.
- By shifting funds through multiple currencies, criminals create additional complexity and reduce transparency, thwarting AML monitoring efforts.
- Criminals bring in fake banknotes to exchange for different currencies, exploiting gaps in verification.
- Once converted, the origin of the funds is more difficult to trace, helping launder the counterfeit proceeds.
- Provide multiple cross-currency swaps with limited oversight, allowing criminals to continually shift denominations and obscure the transaction trail.
- Susceptible to collusion with complicit exchange operators who fail to enforce AML requirements, enabling structured transactions designed to avoid detection thresholds.
- Criminals exploit both licensed and unlicensed currency exchange offices to swap illicit proceeds among different fiat currencies.
- By choosing providers with lax or inconsistent AML controls, they avoid detection and further obscure the fund trail.
- Criminals present official customs declaration documents as proof of lawful funds, enabling them to convert large amounts of illicit cash into other currencies with minimal scrutiny.
- Over-declaring the amount upon entry allows them to exchange more than was physically carried, effectively laundering additional illicit funds under the guise of legitimate declarations.
- By conducting multiple exchanges across different currencies or service providers, criminals further obscure the paper trail.
- Funds from illegal resource operations are rapidly converted to other currencies to break transaction trails.
- Frequent conversions in loosely regulated locales obscure the origin and ultimate destination of illicit proceeds.