Unaligned and fined – Mashreqbank The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) fined Mashreqbank $40 million last week for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Mashreqbank, whose parent bank is based in the United Arab Emirates, is the…
Community banks to pool “some” AML resources
Comply together – Community banks given the ok to pool “some” AML resources At ACAMs in Las Vegas last week, a live survey taken by over 1000 attendees listed “resource allocation” as the greatest challenge facing the US anti-money laundering…
Environmental crime and threat finance
An inconvenient truth – environmental crime and threat finance Environmental crimes are the most important stream of revenue in conflict finance today. This is the stark finding of the “World Atlas of Illicit Flows” which was released last week by…
AML technology failings at Danske Bank
AML technology failings at Danske Bank The money laundering saga at Danske Bank continues to drag on. Last Wednesday, news that the CEO had resigned made headlines across Europe. On Thursday, the UK’s NCA announced that they are investigating a…
The future of FinCEN
The future of FinCEN The House of Representatives last week passed, with overwhelming bipartisan support, the “FinCEN Improvement Act of 2018”. If passed by the Senate, this four-page bill could bring in some important changes to the US AML/CFT regime….
Sanctions and fines
Summer is over – Sanctions and fines Societe Generale announced this week they have set aside $1.27 billion to finally settle an allegation by US authorities that they violated sanctions. The case, which has been ongoing for over a year involves…
5MLD – 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive: What You Need to Know
The Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) will come into force on the 10th January 2020. It will address a number of weaknesses in the European Union’s AML/CFT regime that have come to light since the enactment of the Fourth Money…
The role of professional money launderers
Swiss bankers, Maltese FIs and Venezuelan elite – a recipe to embezzle $1.2 billion Between 2014 and 2015 Venezuela’s now President, Nicolas Maduro and his three stepsons alledgly embezzled over $1.2 billion from Venezuela’s state oil and gas company, PDVSA. The…
The US Treasury FinTech report
Plan of action – the US Treasury releases the FinTech report With some fanfare the US Treasury last week released its report into “Non-bank Financials, FinTech and Innovation”. The report is a long-awaited commitment to modernizing the US financial system by…
US sanctions on Iran
Here we go again – US sanctions on Iran On August 6th it will be 90 days since President Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. This means that the first set of Iran…
Load More