It may seem like a victimless crime but money laundering is just the same as any criminal activity or financial crime. It’s why AML ID VERIFICATION systems, like that from https://www.w2globaldata.com/an-idiots-guide-to-aml-kyc-id-verification are employed by retail finance companies and lenders alike.
Money laundering is a simple idea that is made complex by the systems above. It’s not true to think of it as a victimless crime. At some point, the money that the criminal, or criminals have accumulated has to be stolen from someone somewhere. In most circumstances of money laundering, it is where something of value has been stolen and then sold on the criminal market. The criminals want to get the money they have made back into the finance and banking system as smoothly as possible. They do this in a number of ways.
One of the primary ways to do this is to simply open a current or savings account. The other is to use it as a deposit for a property or to buy something and sell it again very quickly.
This is not to say that our banks, building societies and financial institutions are not wise to such actions. In fact, with the assistance of systems, like the one above, Financial services will look out for these key triggers when assessing someone. The main reason is that they can nip any sign of money laundering in the bud. If the necessary checks are not met they will not hesitate to tell the Police. They don’t let the person they suspect to be committing the crime know that they are reporting them.