Hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit funds move through the global financial system each year through the operations of environmental crimes linked to transnational criminal organizations. Illegal mining, in particular, directly exposes global financial institutions (FIs) to a wide range of legal and compliance risks, as well as financial crimes, absent robust risk mitigation measures.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...