Banks are providing by far the greatest number of suspicious activity reports (SARS) to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) according its latest report which features statistics covering the years 2020-21 and 2021-22. The agency’s 2022 Suspicious Activity Report (SARs)… Read More ›

bank
Impact on financial institutions of upcoming US beneficial ownership rule examined in new paper
Financial institutions have so far not been provided the relief from the burdens of onboarding and customer due diligence they had hoped for as a result of the final version of the beneficial ownership rule issued in September by the… Read More ›
London-based GTBank’s ‘particularly egregious’ conduct and serious AML weaknesses lead to US$9.4 million fine
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Guaranty Trust Bank UK (GT Bank) £7.7 million (US$9.4 million) for serious weaknesses in its anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls between October 2014 and July 2019. The bank provides export, import,… Read More ›
Bangladesh Bank suspends L/Cs to counter TBML and preserve foreign exchange
Bangladesh Bank has suspended 100 letters of credit (L/Cs) for over-invoicing, according to the central bank’s governor, Abdur Rouf Talukder. The suspensions are part of the bank’s efforts to prevent trade-based money-laundering (TBML) via mis-invoicing and preserve foreign exchange reserves… Read More ›
Focus on TBML in FATF report on money laundering linked to trade in fentanyl and synthetic opioids
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published a report that aims to raise awareness about the opioid trade, including the use of precursor chemicals, and the related global financial flows. Money Laundering from Fentanyl and Synthetic Opioids looks at… Read More ›
Banks invested in digital transformation, but spending 70 per cent of AML budgets on labour says LexisNexis study
Banks in the UK are spending £30 billion (US$34 billion) annually complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulation, with three-quarters of budgets spent on people and only a quarter spent on technology according to a survey commissioned and published by LexisNexis Risk… Read More ›
Trade finance banks risk higher penalties under revised US antiboycott rules
Trade finance banks operating in the US risk higher penalties under a policy issued by Washington aimed at strengthening and enhancing enforcement of the antiboycott rules administered by the US department of commerce. The rules prohibit US support for unsanctioned foreign… Read More ›
Dutch financial supervisors’ informal warnings miss opportunities to use full range of sanctions
Despite two recent high profile out-of-court settlements involving major Dutch banks, some of the Netherland’s supervisors still heavily rely on informal enforcement actions and warning letters according to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In its Mutual Evaluation Report Netherlands-2022,… Read More ›