U.S. Worried About Ability To Trace Money Laundering Due to Currency Swaps Between Africa And China

Marshall Billingslea, the U.S. Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, has said that the U.S. is concerned that it may find it harder to trace and prevent money laundering due to increased currency swap agreements between China and Africa. Responding to a question during a congressional hearing, Billingslea said,

You are very much onto something of great concern to us as well. That said, there remains a great desire among most of the countries in Africa to maintain correspondent banking relationships with U.S. banks…our best line of defence to ensure we maintain not just a degree of transparency and visibility into the transactions in Africa but … further to ensure that anti-money laundering standards are being applied.

Zimbabwe has indicated a willingness for all transactions between Zimbabwe and China to be settled using China’s currency the Yuan.