Why Brazil needs a stronger money laundering law

Brazil is facing the possibility of being the first country ever to be suspended from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the intergovernmental organization to promote anti-money laundering policies. The threat rides on Congress’ approval of a bill which alters Brazil’s money laundering legislation to comply with United Nations recommendations.

The FATF, based in France, was formed in 1989 to help fight money laundering by studying trends and issuing recommendations to its members and the global community as a whole. It currently has 37 members (Brazil has been a member since 2000) and while it does maintain a blacklist of so-called “non-cooperative countries of terrorists,” the FATF has never suspended one of its existing members.

The organization conducted a visit to Brazil in 2009 and the following year established a series of recommendations to the country, primarily to criminalize terrorist financing and money laundering “in a manner...