When you are doing your Client Due Diligence on a new client/customer, did you ever wonder where you could obtain a list of sanctioned or high-risk territories/jurisdictions? Well, a reliable source is near at hand. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) identifies jurisdictions with weak measures to combat money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT)… Read More
Cybercrime is not without victims and is taken extremely seriously by law enforcement. Teenagers can drift into cyber-crime without realising the seriousness of their actions. In a timely video message from the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), parents are warned about the crimes teenagers can get involved in, especially during COVID-19 confinement. The NCA have… Read More
We have just published an update to the AML Policies Controls & Procedures Manual last week, which is available to purchase now on our website. Our latest February 2020 edition includes the following updated items: Pronouncement by the FATF arising from their Public Consultation on FATF Draft Guidance on Digital Identity (discussed at the FATF plenary meeting… Read More
In a recent Financial Times story, it was reported that the EU is proposing to set up a new anti-money laundering body in the wake of recent money laundering scandals. EU finance ministers are expected to meet in December and propose the setting up of a new independent body to enforce money laundering prevention measures… Read More
In spite of efforts to make UK registered companies disclose their ownership through the people with significant control (PSC) register, thousands of companies don’t comply with the rules brought in to counter fraud and money laundering. According to a 2018 Freedom of Information request to Companies House by Fortytwo Data (now Napier), over 57,000 UK… Read More
In a recent sanction by the Central Bank, attention is being drawn to the fact that anti-money laundering (AML) training needs to be focused, specific and ongoing. In the sanction report, a financial services firm was fined €443,000 in June 2018 for failures that included lack of appropriate AML training. The sanctions report reads: ‘it… Read More
A lot of generic information has been written about the GDPR and the fact that it comes into effect across the EU on Friday 25 May 2018. According to the Economist newspaper website ‘GDPR is not a matter of fix it and forget it. The new regulations mandate organisation-wide personal data awareness from data protection… Read More
Not paying attention to the UK’s AML legislation has cost a UK accountant at least £8,000. In a decision published in December 2016 an ICAEW member, in practice for 26 years, who was earlier fined £5,000 by Leeds Crown Court, was severely reprimanded by his Institute and ordered to pay costs of over £3,278 and… Read More
A landmark EU data protection judgment in 2014 on the ‘right to be forgotten’, has affected the ability to use Google and other well-known search engines to carry out anti-money laundering (AML) due diligence. On its own, Google is not a sufficient anti-money laundering (AML) risk screening tool, as some search results could be… Read More
AML legislation in Europe is primarily driven by the European Commission and on 26 June 2017 the Commission published a press release highlighting the urgency of the existing AML rules to be implemented in each Member State by adoption of the Fourth AML Directive. 26 June 2017 was the deadline for implementing this Directive… Read More
