The UK is losing the fight on money laundering, but can it still win if it wants?
At the end of 2018, a softly spoken British executive matter-of-factly told the European Parliament how to clean tens of billions of dirty dollars. Howard Wilkinson’s voice shook slightly as he described to MEPs how money from the former Soviet Union was flushed through Danske Bank, where he once worked, into the international financial system. […]
Coronavirus and Safeguarding Customers’ Funds – Additional Guidance
In light of the impact of Covid-19 on firms’ business models, the FCA provided this finalised guidance (https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/finalised-guidance/coronavirus-safeguarding-customers-funds-additional-guidance-payment-e-money-firms.pdf) to strengthen firms’ prudential risk management and arrangements for safeguarding customers’ funds in this period of economic stress. The finalised guidance follows the consultation paper published by the FCA on 22 May 2020 about coronavirus and safeguarding […]
Covid 19 Impact – Cybercrime and Fraud on the Increase
Level of money-laundering doubles in Ireland as criminal activity shifts online. The number of money-laundering crimes recorded in the State more than doubled last year and have increased sixfold in just two years. Garda sources said the trends reflect the changing face of crime in Ireland, more of which is taking place online, and a […]
Anti-Money Laundering Laws Enhancements Across the Middle East
Compliance is not getting any easier and it will become even more complex now. A series of Financial Action Task Force peer reviews has resulted in increased regulatory scrutiny in various states across the Middle East and Africa regions and at the same time global regulatory activity, such as the European Union’s Fifth and Sixth […]
The View of an Internal Auditor on Restoring Trust in Audit and Governance
It is now proposed that company directors should carry out reviews of the effectiveness of their company’s internal controls and say in their annual report, whether they consider controls to have operated effectively. The statement should go on to disclose the benchmark system used (such as the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission […]
Regulating the UK as a global financial centre
We are fully committed to maintaining open and fair UK markets – and we will continue to regulate in the interests of consumers, competition and market integrity.Whilst our markets are open, firms serving UK customers and businesses will need to meet consistently high standards, and there will need to be strong supervisory co-operation between our […]
The importance of purposeful anti-money laundering controls
Two of our biggest sanctions in the last 12 months related to failures to address financial crime and anti-money laundering (AML) risks.We currently have 42 investigations ongoing into firms and individuals involving, for example, systems and controls over politically exposed persons, customers with significant cash intensive operations, correspondent banking and trade finance, and transaction monitoring.AML […]