Asset Freezing
Asset freezing restricts dealings with specified property without necessarily changing ownership and differs from temporary holds, seizure, and forfeiture.
AML and sanctions terms for asset freezes, hawala, sanctions, smurfing, structuring, and money-movement patterns.
Sanctions and Money-Movement Typologies is the regulation landing page for asset freezes, sanctions, hawala, smurfing, structuring deposits, and money-movement risk patterns. It keeps related terms in one branch so readers can move from a broad compliance question to the article that owns the regulatory evidence.
Use this page when money movement or counterparty screening creates sanctions, laundering, or transaction-monitoring risk. Use the parent AML, Sanctions, and Due Diligence page when you need the broader regulation map. For an individual decision, confirm the rule source, jurisdiction, covered party, effective date, filing or record, and compliance consequence before relying on the term.
Use the table below to move from this landing page into the term page that best matches the regulatory evidence.
| Term | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Asset Freezing | Legal restrictions that immobilize specified property without necessarily changing its ownership. |
| Hawala | Informal value transfer through brokers who pay recipients and settle their obligations later. |
| Financial Sanctions | Restrictions on dealings with specified parties, property, sectors, activities, or regions under a particular legal authority. |
| Smurfing | Coordinated use of multiple people or transactions to reduce visibility or evade controls. |
| Structuring a Deposit | Deliberately arranging transactions to evade a reporting or recordkeeping requirement. |
Repeated cash deposits just below a reporting threshold can be a structuring signal even if each deposit appears small by itself.
Sanctions Typologies content is educational and does not provide personalized legal, tax, accounting, compliance, regulatory, investment, or securities advice.
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Asset freezing restricts dealings with specified property without necessarily changing ownership and differs from temporary holds, seizure, and forfeiture.
Financial sanctions restrict dealings with specified parties, property, activities, sectors, or regions under a particular legal authority.
Hawala is an informal value-transfer arrangement in which brokers pay recipients and settle obligations later through netting, trade, cash, or transfers.
Smurfing is an informal AML term for coordinated small transactions intended to conceal control, aggregate activity, or reporting obligations.
Structuring a deposit means arranging transactions to evade a covered reporting or recordkeeping requirement; amount alone does not prove intent.