I think stuff like the OP make this unclear to the layman. The reports that have been leaked are documents that banks are passing to law enforcement. They are evidence of banks attempting to stop crimes, not facilitating them.
The issue is that banks often have no idea themselves because they aren't actually law enforcement. I saw one SAR that actually referenced a random blogpost. And, as you say, it is a slippery slope. The only way to ensure that this never happens ever is to essentially bring the system to a standstill, and ask both law enforcement and regulators to approve every transaction (and even then, they probably won't get it right from the POV of the public all the time).
The example that I read was of a Ponzi scheme where HSBC moved money through accounts, they filed SARs...and yes, if you are a journalist it is easy to go back in time and say: "Oh, look...this ponzi scheme was so obvious, they must have known". Well no, they didn't know, they filed SARs, and waited until someone had actually been found guilty of a crime before acting as judge and jury themselves (which btw, was likely an investigation in which HSBC assisted).
The only foolproof way to launder money these days is to completely conceal your identity (not something a bank can do anything about) or corrupt someone at a financial institution (almost never happens, most large financial institutions have teams of people that track the movements and communications of people working in AML, both personal and business). The effectiveness of this system, given the amount of transactions, is astonishing.
The issue is that banks often have no idea themselves because they aren't actually law enforcement. I saw one SAR that actually referenced a random blogpost. And, as you say, it is a slippery slope. The only way to ensure that this never happens ever is to essentially bring the system to a standstill, and ask both law enforcement and regulators to approve every transaction (and even then, they probably won't get it right from the POV of the public all the time).
The example that I read was of a Ponzi scheme where HSBC moved money through accounts, they filed SARs...and yes, if you are a journalist it is easy to go back in time and say: "Oh, look...this ponzi scheme was so obvious, they must have known". Well no, they didn't know, they filed SARs, and waited until someone had actually been found guilty of a crime before acting as judge and jury themselves (which btw, was likely an investigation in which HSBC assisted).
The only foolproof way to launder money these days is to completely conceal your identity (not something a bank can do anything about) or corrupt someone at a financial institution (almost never happens, most large financial institutions have teams of people that track the movements and communications of people working in AML, both personal and business). The effectiveness of this system, given the amount of transactions, is astonishing.