U4 Helpdesk Answer - The financial returns from anti-corruption and anti-

As an and other items of value or the avoidance of example of a global figure, the OECD estimates that corruption induced cost increases to public around 2.5% of the world’s gross domestic product services and projects (GDP) is lost annually to corruption, which is equivalent to the size of the French economy U4 Anti-Corruption Helpdesk The financial returns from anti-corruption and anti-money lau. [...] As a rule, the more granular and context specific The costs of investing in anti- the parameters for the estimate, the more reliable corruption and anti-money these figures are likely to be. [...] Many of the preventive The recovery of stolen assets measures (customer due diligence, record-keeping, enhanced due diligence measures for high-risk One of the most direct means of measuring the countries and reporting of suspicious transactions) return on investment of anti-corruption and AML are the responsibility of the financial services sector is through asset recovery. [...] In addition to returning funds, the threat of asset recovery acts as In 2022, of the US$7.7bn in assets subject to a deterrent to corrupt actors, through increasing FinCEN asset seizures, US$225m was permanently the risks and costs of corruption (Basel Institute on forfeited to the government under the Bank Secrecy Governance 2020). [...] ARIS allows a proportion of for example, has a model of restitution of illicit the proceeds of crime recovered under POCA to be assets directly back to the national treasury of redistributed to operational partners in the asset countries of origin, or otherwise to the French recovery process (Home Office 2023 b).