OECD money-laundering leader board

It’s estimated that around the world, the total sum of money laundered on an annual basis equates to as much as 3.0% of global GDP – a huge £1.8trn.

For OECD nations, of which the UK is one, the sum of money laundered is estimated to sit at 1.9% of GDP, although this climbs as high as 6.1% in Belgium, with the UK sitting fourth in the table at 4.3%. 

However, the research by Credas shows that when taking the GDP of each nation into account, the UK jumps to second in the table, with this 4.3% of GDP equating to a huge £87.9bn of money being laundered on an annual basis.

Just one other OECD nation sits above the UK, the United States. It’s thought that while this criminal activity only accounts for 1.4% of the nation’s GDP, this totals a huge £216.5bn across the USA every year, by far the highest sum of all OECD countries.

France (£54.5bn), Germany (£51.3bn) and Canada (£25.6bn) also rank within the top five.

In contrast, Iceland sits at the bottom of the OECD rankings, with just £370m in value followed by Estonia (£703.4m) and Latvia (£750m).

OECD nationMoney laundering est % GDPEst money laundering value £
UNITED STATES1.4%£216,549,355,045
UNITED KINGDOM4.3%£87,993,399,778
FRANCE2.8%£54,522,880,513
GERMANY1.8%£51,255,570,511
CANADA2.1%£25,558,979,280
MEXICO3.1%£24,645,890,047
BELGIUM6.1%£23,566,629,207
AUSTRALIA2.3%£22,609,183,520
SWITZERLAND3.7%£20,605,129,121
SPAIN2.0%£18,973,871,231
ITALY1.3%£18,176,951,660
ISRAEL5.0%£15,069,000,269
JAPAN0.3%£11,232,900,989
SWEDEN2.8%£11,218,749,842
NETHERLANDS1.6%£10,824,672,447
IRELAND3.2%£10,089,250,374
AUSTRIA2.5%£8,018,619,692
TURKEY1.5%£7,994,826,656
POLAND1.7%£7,508,660,146
PORTUGAL4.2%£7,105,957,847
NORWAY2.4%£6,441,078,216
SOUTH KOREA0.5%£6,062,738,304
NEW ZEALAND3.2%£4,991,473,985
DENMARK1.8%£4,745,025,726
FINLAND2.1%£4,193,681,173
COLOMBIA1.9%£3,818,001,985
CHILE1.8%£3,370,564,226
HUNGARY2.7%£3,114,349,016
LUXEMBOURG5.5%£2,986,715,833
CZECH REPUBLIC1.5%£2,724,513,516
SLOVAKIA2.1%£1,635,062,306
GREECE1.1%£1,537,758,689
LITHUANIA2.6%£1,088,416,555
SLOVENIA2.3%£912,475,006
COSTA RICA1.9%£869,929,485
LATVIA3.0%£748,614,160
ESTONIA3.1%£703,410,369
ICELAND2.3%£369,795,590
WORLD est total3.0%£1,880,677,230,664

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

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