Gold Supply Chain: Uncovering the ML/FT Red Flags

The gold supply chain has several stages, including extracting, transporting, handling, etc., and is highly vulnerable to financial crime risks. Some of these risks are associated with specific supply chain stages or the players involved in the gold supply chain, whereas other risks are common to all the stages of the gold supply chain.

To easily identify and facilitate the mitigation of ML/FT risks observed in the course of the gold supply chain, we have provided a substantive list of red flags and bifurcated them into various categories for better understanding:

• Red Flags associated with Gold Mining Companies
• Red Flags associated with Shipping
• Red Flags associated with Gold Trading Companies
• Red Flags associated with Transactions and Activities
• Red Flags associated with Geography

The range of the risk indicators is very wide, covering non-compliance of the environment regulations by a mining company, while routing the gold shipment through refineries in jurisdictions that do not offer any economic advantage. Inconsistencies in the transaction value or volume or excessive dealing with unregulated markets are also ML/FT red flags that may suggest abuse of the gold supply chain.

Whenever any of these red flags are observed, immediate action and investigation are demanded. The proactive approach is necessary to ensure a secure gold supply chain and effectively mitigate ML/FT risks.