Decades of anti-money laundering controls have barely made a dent the size of "a rounding error in the accounts of profit motivated criminal enterprises", says a New Zealand researcher.In a new paper; "Uncomfortable truths? ML=BS and AML =BS2" published in the Journal of Financial Crime, Dr Ron Pol claims the current AML/CFT model appears "almost completely ineffective in disrupting illicit finances and serious crime" despite the billions spent on compliance staff, risk assessments, consultants, training and software by financial institutions and other businesses.In fact, he describes the standard AML/CTF model as "a contender for the least effective policy/regulatory/enforcement intervention, ever, anywhere."Pol says that it is well known in AML circles that all this cost and endeavour has limited effects on criminal finances, yet despite this the industry continues with the same model, with incremental expansion of obligations on banks and other businesses.He calls for practitioners and policymakers to reject the industry narrative, and address the gap between the AML system's intention and its woeful results.Pol has also released an independent assessment of the Financial Action Task Force's new global method for assessing the AML/CTF systems of 50 countries, including Australia and New Zealand. Not surprisingly, he finds it is not as robust as it purports to be.