Bank boardroom focus on money laundering is at an all time high, and many are looking to extend their compliance efforts in this area, according to research by KPMG.

KPMG's Global Anti-Money Laundering Survey found 88% of senior financial executives said that money laundering issues are back at the top of the agenda in their organisation, compared to 62% in 2011, while 84% said they were now considered a major concern within their business risk assessment.

Bill Michael, EMA head of financial services at KPMG, said: 'Financial institutions are making significant changes in response to increasingly far-reaching global anti-money laundering regulations: anti-money laundering is shifting from a standalone function under compliance, to an increasingly complex and overarching function cutting across legal, risk, operations and tax.'

The pace and impact of regulatory changes were identified as significant challenges by 84% of respondents, but a third (35%) reported their transaction monitoring systems are neither efficient, nor effective. Only just over half said their systems are able to provide the complete picture by monitoring transactions across businesses and jurisdictions.

The research suggested that organisations are increasingly looking to hand over responsibility to third parties, with 31% outsourcing and 46% off-shoring some of their anti-money laundering functions. KPMG said this is despite senior management concerns regarding a perceived lack of control and oversight, data confidentiality concerns or a lack of cost savings.

Brian Dilley, global head of the anti-money laundering practice at KPMG, said: 'Despite annual expenditure that is estimated to reach billions over the next couple of years, institutions continue to risk falling foul of regulatory expectations, which seem to change more regularly than in the past. Trying to get away with doing "the minimum" is not good enough - the only way to stay out of trouble is to meet the highest standards possible.'

HMRC has today announced the arrests of eight members of the same family on suspicion of laundering approximately £51m in criminal cash after five premises in Staffordshire and Surrey were searched for evidence by 50 HMRC officers, assisted by local police.