Recently, the Madrid branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China's Milan branch were under investigation for money laundering allegations, ANBOUND's research team is of the view that the Chinese banks were not targeted on purpose.

The issue on anti-money laundering has repeated sounded the alarm on the Chinese banks, particularly in light of the escalation of international dilemmas including refugees and anti-terrorism, the global financial industry has considered the compliance of anti-money laundering requirements a highly important issue.

Overall, the Chinese banks have little awareness on anti-money laundering, the country’s anti-money laundering system has a huge gap with its counterparts abroad and the lenient penalty for money laundering are all the root causes of these incidents.

The overseas branches of Chinese banks should pay more attention to risk control than to business expansion and regulate themselves in accordance with international rules.