The City of London is the money-laundering centre of the world's drug trade. UK banks and financial services have ignored so-called "know your customer" rules designed to curb criminals’ abilities to launder the proceeds of crime. A National Crime Agency (NCA) threat assessment stated: "We assess that hundreds of billions of US dollars of criminal money almost certainly continue to be laundered through UK banks, including their subsidiaries, each year." (See also: UK still a safe haven for dirty money, study finds)