Money laundering is a process of ownership disguise of assets, acquired through criminal activities by an individual or a group and displaying these assets as if they were legitimately acquired. The procedures through which criminally derived assets can be laundered are extensive. Purpose of the study is to describe procedures and methods of money laundering, as well as the stages that this process goes through. Although money acquired from criminal activities can be tracked without the help of the financial sector, large portions of the money extracted from crime are laundered annually through financial institutions. Financial service industry offers different services and products (f.e. the management, control or possession of money and assets belonging to others), which means that is highly susceptible to abuse by the processes of money laundering. There are many laws dealing with money laundering and this paper will describe the most important ones applied in Croatian and international legislation. The role of money laundering institutions that help defend against this illegal act will also be presented. In recent years there has been increased risk from modern money laundering methods through new financial technologies like digital wallets, cryptocurrencies and new fintech companies. Even though specific financial technologies represent serious risk for public trust and stability of financial system, technologies like blockchain and Open API can seriously help in anti-money laundering and risk management.