Banks failing to comply with anti-corruption rules and sanctions lists

Researchers emailed 5,000 banks and 7,000 other financial intermediaries in 273 countries and financial jurisdictions in 2020-21 to test compliance with the rules. Photograph: LM Otero/AP

Criminals including terrorists and tax evaders, as well as government officials subject to sanctions, can easily breach regulations meant to bar them from the international finance system, a study has found.

Banks and other financial firms around the world, including in the UK, are failing to comply with international anti-corruption rules, according to research by the University of Cambridge and the University of Texas at Austin.