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Comment by nateabele | Hacker News Reader

Things this article fails to address:

1) That AML creates a massive honeypot of data for hackers, housed at institutions which historically have structural challenges with technology investment

2) The real, material downsides felt by non-criminals, as expressed by many others in this thread

3) That the sum total financial activity of criminals who would benefit from the lack of AML is likely a rounding error compared to money laundering carried out by banks like HSBC

4) The philosophical position that governments are entitled to dragnet surveil law-abiding citizens in order to combat crime

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I've worked at a number of financial institutions including two banks.

No idea what you are talking about with AML creating a massive honeypot of data for hackers. If a bank's internal systems were to be widely compromised then stealing a few graph datasets would be the least of their worries. You would have dozens of attack vectors to steal significant amounts of money without the bank finding out quickly.

And compliance issues by HSBC et al is a direct result of a lack of proper AML/KYC systems and processes. So you're making the case that we should roll them out.

> I've worked at a number of financial institutions including two banks.

I spent 5 years in fintech and touched over a dozen financial institutions. You're not thinking creatively enough. Plus everyone has to do KYC/AML, including two-bit money transmitter startups.

> And compliance issues by HSBC et al is a direct result of a lack of proper AML/KYC systems and processes.

Hah, okay. Even if that were true, just keep walking down the menu: JPM knew Jeffrey Epstein was their customer, too.

Seems like:

- 1 isn't necessarily true if certain techniques are used, and those techniques are indeed used (there's a bunch)

- 2 feels overblown by the other users here, to the point that I believe many who are opposed to AML efforts here are acting in bad faith and have other intentions

- 3 seems doubtful given modern Chinese and Russian money laundering efforts in the west

- 4 is a bigger discussion to be had, and in my opinion, can be justified given the societal consequences of not acting against money laundering. We've already seen a big consequence of it with real estate prices

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