Self-Organising Map Based Framework for Investigating Accounts Suspected of Money Laundering

There has been an emerging interest by financial institutions to develop advanced systems that can help enhance their anti-money laundering (AML) programmes. In this study, we present a self-organising map (SOM) based approach to predict which bank accounts are possibly involved in money laundering cases, given their financial transaction histories. Our method takes advantage of the competitive and adaptive properties of SOM to represent the accounts in a lower-dimensional space. Subsequently, categorising the SOM and the accounts into money laundering risk levels and proposing investigative strategies enables us to measure the classification performance. Our results indicate that our framework is well capable of identifying suspicious accounts already investigated by our partner bank, using both proposed investigation strategies. We further validate our model by analysing the performance when modifying different parameters in our dataset.

“Butts, Budgets, and Behaviors”

This chapter examines how pastors match their own evaluation of themselves as “successful entrepreneurs” against external evaluations of them as “failures” based on conventional measures of success: large congregations, large bank accounts, and large sanctuaries. This chapter shows that an essential component of founding pastors’ beliefs that their churches are successful, even if they only have 30 members or are mortgaging their home to pay the church’s bills, is the ambiguous and difficult-to-quantify measure of “changed lives.” They argued the evidence of their success was the way parishioners’ souls have been revived, their lives have been rebuilt, and the communities around them have been revitalized. Sociologist Carl Bankston sees “religious environments as economies in which religious groups are firms competing for customers who make rational choices among available products.” With this in mind, this chapter also examines how pastors think about competition and their position in a competitive religious economy.

Does Access to Bank Accounts as a Minor Improve Financial Capability? Evidence from Minor Bank Account Laws

Banking the unbanked is a common policy goal, but should this include access to bank accounts for minors? This study estimates how teenagers' access to bank accounts affects their financial development. Using variation in state laws, we show policies that permit access to independently-owned accounts increase account ownership at age 16 through age 19, although by age 24 those young adults are banked at similar rates to teens who grew up in states that do not allow minors to own accounts independently. Teens who had access to independently-owned accounts use fewer high-cost alternative financial services (like payday loans) through age 20—but are then more likely to use AFS, particularly check-cashing services, from age 21 through 24. Using credit records, we show that access to non-custodial accounts has no effects on credit scores in the short-run, but lower credit scores and more loan delinquencies at ages 21 through 24. While these state laws promote financial inclusion for teenagers, the young people who take on accounts may experience negative consequences in the longer run.

BANKING FACILITIES IN TRIBAL DOMINATED RURAL AREAS - A CASE STUDY OF HEZAMARA BLOCK, MOHANPUR, TRIPURA

A bank is a financial institution licensed to receive deposits, make credits and provide other banking facilities – transactions,payments and insurance.By the way of implementing the concept of financial inclusion,a vast section of the rural disadvantaged tribal people in India was gradually coming under the ambit of formal banking services.As per the report of the World Bank's (2017) Global Findex shows that nearly 80 percent of the people in India had a bank account. However a significant portion of tribal people in India are excluded from the ambit of the banking facilities in the country. In this background the present paper aims to assess the level of access to banking facilities among the tribal people of Hezamara Block of Mohanpur,Tripura and to study their awareness level about financial products and services offered by the banks.The present study is based on primary data collected from the 200 tribal households in Hezamara Block through a set questionnaire and discussion.It has found that 100 percent of sample tribal respondents are having bank accounts and majority of the respondents have their bank accounts in Tripura Gramin Banks (TGBs) and Tripura State Co-operative Banks (TSCBs) respectively.

Assessing resistance to accept electronic wallets in Egypt: تقييم مقاومة قبول المحافظ الإلكترونية في مصر

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that obstruct the diffusion of electronic wallets in the Egyptian society. As there is great resistance to the use of electronic payment services provided by governmental and private banks, and the insistence of customers to use cash due to the many reasons that were discussed in the research. In spite of this, several countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Malaysia and India, as an example similar to the Egyptian example, have come forward and found many solutions to switch from cash to electronic payment. Nowadays, cell phones have become a fundamental piece of one's everyday life. Users would be able to utilize their Smartphones to make money transactions or online payments by using applications on their phones. There are many mobile wallets, which provide these types of services. Electronic wallets are computerized version of traditional wallets that somebody would carry in their pocket. They offer payment service through which the people/business can receive/send money by smart phones. The current paper highlights the factors that affect Egyptians’ consumer behavior towards electronic wallets, either directly or indirectly and the reasons behind rejecting the idea of replacing cash payments with electronic payments, despite, the global trend to reduce the use of cash especially in the current period of the Coronavirus pandemic. A recent statistic from the Central Bank of Egypt stated that 67% of Egyptians do not have bank accounts, this alarming statistic shows that Egyptians might be uncomfortable dealing with banks, this reflects the level of resistance that Electronic wallet services will face in building familiarity and acceptance with the Egyptian consumers. Through interviews and phone calls with a group of 48 executives and team leaders from government and private banks, in addition to 62 individuals from different age groups- who owned bank accounts in different banks- it was found that the age group from 20 to 40 are the most frequent users of electronic wallets and electronic payment services. Service quality emerged strongly during the study as a variable moderating the acceptance of electronic wallets by customers. Study also indicated that banks’ customers who had concerns about using the electronic wallet for other reasons including making a wrong transaction, refund period, mobile phone coverage when payment is required urgently and on top of this customers had safety concerns and problems dealing with mobile applications. According to 2024 expectations, there is an increase of more than 50% for users of e-wallets for bank account holders, however, through breading familiarity with the concept of electronic wallets and banks investment in a highly secured and user friendly applications percentage could go higher. Recommendations to increase the diffusion rate of e-wallets in the Egyptian society: - A planned and systematic awareness campaign introducing government’s efforts towards using electronic payment services. - Training of the section concerned with technical support to service electronic wallets in all banks to solve all customer problems easily and quickly, which in turn makes the customer satisfied with the service. - Simplifying and facilitating electronic payment applications on mobile phones to facilitate handling by elderly or low-education persons. - Motivating customers to use e-wallets through loyalty program and sales promotions.

PROCEDURAL PARTICIPATION OF BANKS IN COVERT INVESTIGATIVE (SEARCH) ACTION «BANK ACCOUNTS MONITORING»

The concept of financial monitoring as a set of measures carried out by the entities of primary and state financial monitoring in the field of prevention and counteraction to separatist funding (article 110-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), legalization (laundering) of criminally obtained property (article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and terrorism funding (article 258-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) is developed and proved. The relationship between the categories of «terrorism» and «finance» is determined in the following areas: money paid to terrorists for refusing to commit violence acts; covert funding of terrorist organizations by certain states, non-governmental organizations, and criminal groups; «money laundering» and its introduction into legal circulation; creation of own groups in commercial, credit and financial institutions by terrorist organizations; ‘launderingof money’ obtained as a result of criminal activity. The risks in the system of prevention of terrorism and counteraction to legalization of criminally obtained proceedsare outlined. They were defined as the following: non-transparent funding of political parties; the share of cash resources addressed to the mentioned criminal activity; «outflow» of capital; absence of a clearly defined sectoral risk assessment of the entities of primary financial monitoring in the field of prevention and counteraction to legalization (laundering) of criminally obtained proceeds. It is offered to include the risk of terrorism and separatism funding through deposit-taking corporations tobanking risks. An attempt has been made to accumulate the majority of the latest achievements (as legislative, theoretical and research aswell as applied ones) on the issues of legal regulation of the studied procedural, financial and legal relations, on the basis of which scientific views are proved and proposals for improving regulations in this area are worked out. Keywords: monitoring, banks, covert investigative actions, bank accounts monitoring, terrorism funding, banking risks, financial and legal relations. JEL Classification E42, E52, G28, K13, K14 Formulas: 0; fig.: 1; tabl.: 0; bibl.: 16.

Peculiarities of Seizure of Bank Accounts in Criminal Proceedings in Georgia

The article relates to the seizure of bank accounts, its legal bases, submission of collection order and its importance in accordance with the criminal proceedings of the Republic of Georgia. Property right is the human right acknowledged and protected under the constitution. “Property right is eternal and supreme human value. Universally recognized basic right is a cornerstone of democratic society, social and legal state. Property is essential basis of human life.” Property right relates to human freedom as exactly under property right is stipulated human existence and proprietary bases of activity that itself has influence on establishment of independent life of human and its management. Thus, each state is obliged to provide environment enabling use of property right. It is negative obligation of state to abstain from such activity stipulating intervention in property right, though under positive obligation the state has to establish such a legal system that will facilitate provision and protection of fair balance between members of society. “Property right is not only elementary basis of human existence but provides its freedom, adequate realization of person’s ability and opportunities, leading the life with personal responsibility. This stipulates private initiatives of individual in the field of economics that facilitates development of economic relations, free entrepreneurship and market economy and normal and stable civil circulation”. Social bonding theory is established in legal literature. “Judiciary will not be indifferent to social burden of property as exactly here is exposed the task subject to execution by property, its place, role and importance. That is why social and legal state require both freedom of private property and necessity of its limitation for public purposes.” Itself essence of seizure is interpreted as follows – interim measure prohibiting defendant to alienate seizured property. The word “seizure” semantically means prohibition, suppression and warning. Consideration of seizure in terms of the method of etymological study leads us to Europe, where it entered in old England in 1275-1325 and even in the same period in France that was loanword from Latin. Since the 18th century seizure is considered in the monuments of Georgian law. The topic of this article is seizure of bank accounts and submission of collection order. RESUMEN El artículo se refiere al embargo de cuentas bancarias, sus bases legales, la presentación de la orden de cobro y su importancia de acuerdo con los procedimientos penales de la República de Georgia. El derecho de propiedad es un derecho humano reconocido y protegido por la Constitución. "El derecho de propiedad es un valor humano eterno y supremo. El derecho básico universalmente reconocido es la piedra angular de la sociedad democrática y del Estado social y jurídico. La propiedad es la base esencial de la vida humana". El derecho de propiedad se relaciona con la libertad humana, ya que el derecho de propiedad estipula exactamente la existencia humana y las bases de propiedad de la actividad que tiene influencia en el establecimiento de la vida independiente del ser humano y su gestión. Por lo tanto, cada Estado está obligado a proporcionar un entorno que permita el uso del derecho de propiedad. El Estado tiene la obligación negativa de abstenerse de intervenir en el derecho de propiedad, aunque tiene la obligación positiva de establecer un sistema legal que facilite la provisión y protección de un equilibrio justo entre los miembros de la sociedad. "El derecho de propiedad no es sólo la base elemental de la existencia humana, sino que proporciona su libertad, la realización adecuada de la capacidad y las oportunidades de la persona, llevando la vida con responsabilidad personal. Esto estipula las iniciativas privadas del individuo en el campo de la economía que facilita el desarrollo de las relaciones económicas, la libre iniciativa empresarial y la economía de mercado y la circulación civil normal y estable ". La teoría de la vinculación social está establecida en la literatura jurídica. "El poder judicial no será indiferente a la carga social de la propiedad, ya que aquí se expone exactamente la tarea sujeta a la ejecución de la propiedad, su lugar, su papel y su importancia. Por ello, el estado social y jurídico exige tanto la libertad de la propiedad privada como la necesidad de su limitación para fines públicos". La esencia misma de la incautación se interpreta de la siguiente manera: medida provisional que prohíbe al demandado enajenar la propiedad incautada. La palabra "incautación" significa semánticamente prohibición, supresión y advertencia. La consideración de la incautación en términos del método de estudio etimológico nos lleva a Europa, donde entró en la antigua Inglaterra en 1275-1325 e incluso en el mismo período en Francia que fue loanword del latín. Desde el siglo XVIII la incautación se considera en los monumentos de la ley georgiana. El tema de este artículo es la incautación de cuentas bancarias y la presentación de la orden de cobro.