From regime change in Myanmar and Afghanistan to a spotlight on environmental crime at COP26 and the explosive Pandora Papers leak, 2021 has been another landmark year for compliance professionals. But what events from this year are likely to set […]
Regulators & Key Institutions
As part of Estonia’s mission to become ‘the world’s most advanced digital society’, the government established the e-Estonia program. e-Estonia was put into action in 1996 through the Tiger Leap Initiative, a roadmap to develop the country’s IT infrastructure. This […]
The Baltic countries – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – have rapidly become fintech hubs, making them increasingly attractive destinations for founders launching a startup or firms expanding from other parts of Europe. However, the Baltics have a complex geopolitical history, […]
The European Commission has fined five major European banks a total of €344m as part of a long-running investigation into the foreign exchange (Forex) spot trading market. The Commission’s investigation focused on the trading of G10 currencies – the most […]
The US real estate market faces increasing regulatory scrutiny, with Treasury regulator FinCEN calling for public comment on its plans to root out money laundering and corruption in the sector, particularly through all-cash deals. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking […]
A top executive at Malaysia’s central bank has warned that increasingly sophisticated financial tools and products are creating new and growing challenges for the country’s anti-money laundering, combatting the financing of terrorism and proliferation financing (AML/CFT/PF) measures. Bank Negara Malaysia […]
UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has made public its threatened enforcement action against an interdealer broker that has failed to exercise due skill, care, and diligence in its anti-money laundering (AML) policies and procedures. The firm’s “serious failings” […]
On July 1st 2020 Dr Marcus Pleyer (Federal Ministry of Finance) assumed the presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany. The FATF’s planned areas of focus during its two year German […]
It has been estimated that 100bn euros is laundered by criminals in Germany every year. Whatever the true scale, this figure doesn’t just include the well-publicized examples of large-scale transactions moving through international banks. It also refers to the proceeds […]
Following a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary in February 2020, Mauritius was added to FATF’s list of Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring, which is commonly referred to as the ‘grey list’. How did Mauritius find itself in this position, and […]
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has released a new guide aimed at tackling the increasing misuse of transaction payment text fields by criminals. The guide, Preventing misuse and criminal communication through payment text fields, aims to raise […]
Swiss regulator the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has reprimanded two banks for breaking money laundering rules during their dealings with Venezuelan entities. Wrapping up a five-year investigation into 30 banks suspected of breaches relating to Venezuela’s state oil company […]