Anti money laundering

(AML) is a term mainly used in the financial and legal industries to describe the legal controls that require financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent or report money laundering activities. Anti-money laundering guidelines came into prominence globally after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Today, most financial institutions globally, and many non-financial

institutions, are required to identify and report transactions of a suspicious nature to the financial intelligence unit in the respective country. For example, a bank must perform due diligence by verifying a customer's identity and monitor transactions for suspicious activity. To do this, many financial institutions utilize the services of special software, and use the services of companies such as C6 to gather information about high risk individuals and organizations.United States federal law related to money laundering is implemented under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 as amended by anti-money laundering acts up to the present. Many people have confused Anti-Money Laundering (AML) with Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF). Under the Bank Secrecy Act of USA, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing are classified when financial institutions file Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) which is a US government agency. To effectively implement AML and ATF measures, The US government encourages financial institutions to work together for AML and ATF purposes in accordance with Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act. However, since financial institutions are required by law to protect the privacy of their clients, section 314(b) cooperation has not been generally adopted by financial institutions. To overcome this obstacle, the United Crimes Elimination Network (UCEN) has been established by AML and ATF professionals to achieve this global cooperation goal in compliance with the privacy laws of most countries.

In different countries and, depending on the activity, demand different action. For example; in the US a deposit of US$10,000 or more requires a CTR (Currency Transaction Report), in Europe it is EUR 15,000, and in Switzerland it is CHF 25,000. In some countries there is no CTR requirement. Suspicion of ML activity in the US requires the submission of a SAR, while in Switzerland a SAR will only get filed if that activity can be proved. As a result, thousands of SARs are filed daily in the US, while in Switzerland the rate is much lower.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime maintains the International Money Laundering Information Network, a website that provides information and software for anti-money laundering data collection and analysis. The World Bank has a website in which it provides policy advice and best practices to governments and the private sector on anti-money laundering issues.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers.While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.