A DETECTIVES investigating money launderers have been given new powers to snoop on private bank accounts following a massive surge in reports of suspicious transactions.
Under laws introduced this month, police will be able to ask the court to order a bank to monitor money entering and leaving a suspect's accounts.
New legislation also puts bank staff under an obligation to report any suspicious transactions. .
Senior government lawyer John Carlson outlined the changes to the law yesterday at the beginning of a two-day conference on money laundering aimed at bankers.
Police could not say how much 'dirty money' was processed in Hong Kong, but about US$300 billion (around HK$2,320 billion) is laundered every year throughout the world. In the past two years the number of suspicious transactions disclosed by banks and financial houses in Hong Kong has shot up by 15 times.
So far this year the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit has received more than 1,130 tip-offs involving HK$48 billion.
The soaring figures are the result of a drive by the Hong Kong Association of Banks to involve members in the war on money laundering.
