Anti-money laundering (AML) - as well as KYC - is something which every company serious about payments has to deal with. AML requirements
are pushed by the industry regulators (who are not always in touch with reality...) and are seen by the industry as the (un)neccessary evil - none of those measures prevent multi-billion (!) money
laundering scandals.
Let's explore AML from a different perspective. In most cases, money laundering is about injecting "dirty" cash into the banking system. Once the funds are in the system, AML becomes pretty much useless - unless one sends regular large payments to "known
terrorists" (how can we know that a newly formed "My pets" company does really serve furry customers?..)
But why do we need cash in the first place? If I were, for example, one of the Yakuza bosses and my business was going through the mid-life crisis, I would embrace
innovation: sign up for iZettle as a "hospitality" merchant and tell my customers that it's "cards only" now. Simples!
If some politician or pop singer does not want those "hospitality" transactions appear on his/her main credit card statement, he/she can always get one of the anonymous (non-reloadable) prepaid cards.
That will spruce up Yakuza's dusty image, propel their centuries-old business to the forefront of mobile payments revolution, boost the country's economy and make life easier for everyone in that ecosystem (just, sort of, kidding).