Yeah i was kinda thinking the same thing... for the USA
for atleast 150 countries out of the 200+ in the world have some form of flagging system.
and to be honest money laundering is less about criminal behaviour, and more about limiting customers from taking their money out on a whim.
EG ATM's have a $500 limit in most cases, UK has £300. not due to criminal concerns. but to keep 99% of peoples funds in the hands of the bank for their lovely fractional reserve processes.
there is psychology behind it.
if you had $10,000 and you could walk up to an ATM and take it all out.. you would. simply so you can go home and throw it in the air to "make it rain". and then spend it on whatever you pleased, when you pleased without having to bother walking to an ATM each time.
but by limiting your access to it. you only take out 5% at most. and then you are more thoughtful of how you spend it. because the ATM limits your usage and then reminds you that you are poorer than yesterday with its balance displays. causing people to not want to withdraw as much.. (playing into banks desires)
after all a can of car fuel and a box of matches can do alot of criminal damage for under $30, so a $500 limit is not stopping criminal activity.. even guns cost less.
wire transfers are different. because it involves bank->bank. thus fund stay in a bank, so that is more relaxed at $10,000 US or 10,000Euro.
In the EU I think if only 1000 euros gets moved it gets flagged by the banks because of some new regulation to stop money laundering. With that restriction bitcoin is useless for money laundering. The USA will probably copy the EU and reduce their limit to $1000 before long.
EU wire transfer regs are 10,000, not 1000
