Suspicious financial activities rise again

Switzerland's money laundering authority has reported another yearly increase in suspicious activities and said that the assets involved reached an all-time high.

The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland said it received 851 suspicious activity reports last year, compared with 795 in 2007.

Although the number of reports rose only seven per cent, the number off assets doubled, reaching a record SFr1.87 billion ($1.64 billion).

As with the previous year, two-thirds of reports came from the banking sector. Over 38 per cent were related to fraud.

Overall, the percentage of cases referred to prosecutors rose slightly, to 81 per cent.

Nine reports were related to suspected terrorist financing and involved assets of more than SFr1 million, although none were based on regulations imposed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs prohibiting transactions with Osama bin Laden, al Qaida or the Taliban.

One terrorism-related case, involving SFr942,000, was dismissed by prosecuting authorities.

swissinfo with agencies