WELLINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand Parliament on Thursday passed a bill to strengthen the existing Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act 2009, said Justice Minister Amy Adams.
The AML/CFT Amendment Bill will help prevent New Zealand being used by international criminals to launder money, and help protect the country's hard-fought reputation as being one of the least corrupt countries in the world and a good place to do business, Adams said.
"Money laundering and the financing of terrorism is a global issue with serious consequences," the minister said, adding that it is blight on society that undermines the hard work of legitimate businesses by allowing criminals to fund their lifestyles and fuel re-investment into criminal activities.
The bill extends the current AML/CFT regime to lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, real estate agents, sports and racing betting and businesses that deal in certain high value goods, which strengthens New Zealand's ability to prevent, detect and prosecute many types of criminal activity.
It is estimated these reforms will disrupt up to 1.7 billion NZ dollars (1.26 billion U.S. dollars) of fraud and drug crime, prevent up to 5 billion NZ dollars (3.7 billion U.S. dollars) in broader criminal activity, and reduce social harm by 800 million NZ dollars (592 million U.S. dollars) over ten years.
