For organized crime, laundering dirty money has become as important as conducting the criminal activity itself. The laundering process involves placement (depositing money in a bank and exchanging banknotes for other nominal values or currencies), layering (concealing bookkeeping traces and securing anonymity), and integration (reinvesting money into trade, real estate or industrial activity). International initiatives aimed at preventing money laundering and other abuses of financial systems try to ensure that, in addition to other measures, banks know their customers' true identities, adhere to high ethical standards, cooperate with law enforcement agencies, and give special attention to unusual, complex, or large transactions with no apparent lawful purpose. The article gives special attention to money laundering in the Polish financial system and Polish initiatives to counter the practice. Taking firm action against money laundering helps to preserve the integrity of the financial system and fight back against drug trafficking and other organized crime. But such action must be accompanied by a new normative system and a new ethos of international finance. The financial system should no longer be allowed to hide behind banking secrecy to permit concealment of illicit profits. Notes