Bad Banks essay

Bad banks are financial institutions that besides giving the normal services of providing custody to customers’ money and other valuables, also participate in questionable activities (Biersteker & Ekert, 2008).  Such misdeeds may include criminal activities such as money laundering, financing terrorism activities and covering of clients taking part in illicit activities. 

Terrorists from the entire world continue causing havoc to ordinary unsuspecting citizens of various countries. It is a known fact that these terrorists deposit huge amounts of money which is used to finance their illegal operations. Bad banks avoid the responsibility of questioning the money transfers into different banks in the fear of they would lose their loyal clients. The money is wired to different banks through dubious means with the support of the bad banks.

Money laundering involves investing of money that is acquired through illegal activities such as piracy, theft and corruption. Such money is then deposited in banks far away from where it was sourced (Schott, 2006). Bad banks again accept to offer custody to this money without caring to find out whether the sources of this money are legitimate. By accepting to bank these monies, the banks promote the illegal activities of money laundering which eventually affects the economies of the countries where the money is invested.

The bad banks are known to provide cover up for their clients who engage in illegal activities such as terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking for their selfish interests. This is done in order to maximize profits for the financial institutions and this seems to work well to their advantage. It is therefore crucial for the concerned countries to utilize the necessary intelligence to combat these illegal activities.