Placement, layering and integration explained
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Placement, layering and integration describe the three classic stages of money laundering, a process corrupt actors frequently rely on to make illicit funds appear legitimate. Placement introduces the money into the financial system, often through cash deposits or the purchase of easily liquidated assets that raise little immediate suspicion.
Layering follows, involving a series of transactions, often across multiple accounts and countries, specifically designed to obscure the original source of the funds and make tracing them back considerably harder for any single investigator or agency working with limited visibility into the full, cross-border chain of transactions involved.
Integration is the final stage, where the now disguised funds are reintroduced into the legitimate economy, often through property, business investment, or other assets that appear entirely ordinary. Understanding these three stages helps investigators and regulated businesses recognise where in the process detection is actually most realistically achievable, which tends to matter more over years than in any single moment.