STOCKHOLM, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Swedish police sought to plug legal loopholes concerning popular mobile payment service, Swish, which is believed to be used by criminals to launder money, Swedish news SVT reported on Friday.
"As it is today, we run the risk of missing information. This is the basis for our request to the Ministry of Justice for a review of the money laundering regulations," Nicklas Lundh, Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit at Sweden's National Operations Department (NOA), told SVT.
Swish is a mobile phone payment service that individuals, companies and organizations can use to send and receive money.
The service was launched in 2012 as collaboration between six of Sweden's largest banks. In 2014 Swish was launched for companies and organizations.
According to current legislation, Swish has neither the right nor the obligation to report suspicious transaction deviations to the authorities.
Instead, it is up to the six banks to report suspicions of criminal activities. This arrangement, according to the police, makes tracking difficult when the money is transferred between different banks.
According to NOA, Swish is "a direct link in money laundering as the service enables crime profits with a high turnover rate to be layered in several stages".
Money transferred between the different banks supporting Swish is even more difficult for police to trace, SVT reported.
Lundh said Swish's current operating agreement leaves "risky gaps" open to exploitation by criminals laundering money.
"This review would allow more crimes to be solved," Lundh told SVT.
