Ex.2. Read the text, paying special attention to the highlighted words and expressions with supplied translation. Get ready to translate the text at sight

Information sources: “The Economist”; “Credits & Co” Information bulletin.

1. What is money laundering? (отмывание денег)

Money laundering – best defined as the processing through the banking system (проведение через банковскую систему; осуществление банковских проводок) of the proceeds of crime (деньги от преступных операций; незаконные доходы; доходы, полученные преступным путем), in order to disguise their illegal origin – is something which is generally believed to involve only drug dealers and unknown banks in banana republics. However, whether wittingly or not, many of the world’s best–known banks have become a central element in the process by which crooks clean up their ill-gotten gains (отмывать незаконно заработанные / полученные средства). The International Monetary Fund reckons that the amount of dirty money being cleaned through the world’s financial system is huge – between $500 billion and $1.5 trillion a year, equivalent to some 1.5-5% of gross world product (валовый мировой продукт (ВМП)).

As the Economist states, laundering has grown hand-in-hand with globalization, particularly with the lifting of capital controls (отмена контроля за потоками капитала) and the development of international payment systems (международные платежные системы). These allow money to be shifted in seconds between banks in different parts of the world that may not even be aware of each other’s existence. The amounts of money being transferred are huge. Bank of America, for example, sees nearly $1 trillion passing through its internal wire (внутренняя банковская компьютерная сеть) every day.

Private banking (частное банковское обслуживание, банковское обслуживание состоятельных лиц) is the laundering channel that has received most attention. Private banking clients tend to be wealthy people who want their affairs handled with discretion (требовать полной конфиденциальности) – not least because they need help in exploiting opportunities to minimize their tax bill (минимизировать налоговые обязательства). Traditionally, a bank that would ask too many questions would find its customers taking their money elsewhere. So a “ don’t ask, don’t tell ” culture (традиция не задавать лишних вопросов) developed in the banking system, in which money laundering was able to thrive.

2. High-tax nations (государства с высокой ставкой налогообложения), like most of their low-tax counterparts* (и, напротив, государства с низкой ставкой налогообложения), do have laws against money laundering. Unfortunately, they have not been very successful. The US Treasury Department (Казначейство США) estimates that 99.9 percent of the criminal money in the United States is laundered successfully. Other OECD (Организация экономического сотрудничества и развития (ОЭСР)) nations have equally poor records.

3. Tax havens (налоговые гавани) attract wealth, but most money is institutional investment (вложения институциональных инвесторов, институциональные инвестиции). Bermuda, for instance is a leading center for the insurance industry, Luxembourg and Switzerland are world leaders in managing mutual fund assets (управление активами взаимных инвестиционных фондов / фондов взаимных инвестиций). Cayman Islands is near top in almost all facets of financial services and also draws (привлекает; где оседают) a substantial amount of bank-to-bank deposits (межбанковские депозиты).

American corporations make extensive use of offshore regimes, earning almost one-third of their profits in low-tax jurisdictions.

For all the recent focus on big banks in established financial centres, banks in so called offshore centres are still the main targets of anti-money-laundering efforts. Offshore centres control an estimated $5 trillion in assets.