City 'lax on money laundering'

TERRORISTS, drug dealers and organised criminals could be laundering more than £18bn a year through the City of London, an anti-corruption group has warned.

The fight against it is 'starved' of resources and laundering is at such high levels it poses 'one of the most significant threats to our future prosperity and growth,' said Transparency International.

After a year surveying banks, finance houses, regulators and Government departments, the group said prosecutions have low police priority and too little is done to clamp down on shady lawyers and accountants.