- Home/Publications/Money Laundering Bulletin
FATF releases rules for fifth mutual evaluation round
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released detailed rules on how its fifth mutual evaluation round will proceed, with assessments beginning next year and continuing until 2032.
Online Published Date:
18 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Untold wealth - Brunei
The concentration of power in the hands of one man in Brunei is undisputed but how much he is worth and how those assets are held is not. Paul Cochrane & Keith Nuthall seek the road to riches.
Online Published Date:
18 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Lawfare - the case against mandatory AML
While lawyers in Europe long ago accepted they should be under a legal duty to manage client money laundering risk, their counterparts in other leading jurisdictions - the United States, Canada and till recently Australia (though legislation is not yet passed) - have fought vigorously against imposition of similar obligations. Keith Nuthall looks into their rationale and whether it can hold.
Online Published Date:
18 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Effective direction - interview with Elisa de Anda Madrazo, FATF President [Video]
The Financial Action Task Force is set on a course of 'radical tuning' across the next two years, with a drive to ensure the risk-based approach - Recommendation 1 - properly informs application of its global standards against illicit finance, and, among other priorities, to expand financial inclusion, improving access to the formal financial system while reducing reliance on cash; also to better respond to non-compliance by some, often the smaller, low-capacity jurisdictions.Elisa de Anda Madrazo, of Mexico, who took on leadership of FATF for the next two years in July, generously made time to explore the programme with Keith Nuthall, ahead of the October 2024 plenary.
Online Published Date:
21 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Keep 'em out: digital defence
In a continual effort to break into the financial system, criminals will test any innovation to the limit so are fully exploiting AI, deepfakes and falsified biometrics to open and operate accounts. Paul Cochrane looks into the dynamic threat and how the banking sector is also harnessing the latest developments in technology to respond.
Online Published Date:
21 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Lake Elsinore Casino fined US$900,000 by FinCEN over BSA/AML failings
California, USA-based Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino, on 23 October, agreed to a consent order from FinCEN under which it will pay a civil penalty of US$850,000 for major gaps in its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering controls, between 7 September 2014 and 11 February 2019. A further US$50,000 charge will apply if the firm fails, within a year, to report to FinCEN on how it is progressing remediation recommended by a qualified independent consultant.
Online Published Date:
23 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
FATF plenary launches fifth evaluation round with financial inclusivity push
The first Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary under the presidency of Mexico's Elisa de Anda Madrazo has launched the anti-money laundering body's fifth mutual evaluation round, while taking initial steps towards boosting inclusivity. For the first time, two external jurisdictions - Cayman Islands and Senegal - were invited to participate in the plenary and working groups as guests, to "broaden the diversity of perspectives at the FATF," said a post-meeting communiqué.
Online Published Date:
28 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Decipher - China's crypto strategy
China has taken a hard line on cryptocurrency activity, in sharp contrast to Hong Kong, but it goes on even as Beijing forges ahead with plans for a digital Yuan. Keith Nuthall & Andreia Nogueira puzzle the evolving regulatory response.
Online Published Date:
29 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
A drop in the ocean: UK v ML
The furtive nature of money laundering makes it difficult to determine just how common it is or the true amount of funds it involves, reflects Niall Hearty of Rahman Ravelli. So, the figures that the UK's National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) produced make interesting and alarming reading.
Online Published Date:
29 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Singapore issues AML strategy plus proliferation financing, legal persons and virtual assets risk assessments
Fraud (especially cyber-enabled), overseas organised crime abuse of online gambling, corruption and tax evasion proceeds from abroad, and trade-based money laundering are the key threats identified in Singapore's latest Anti-Money Laundering Strategy, published on 30 October 2024.
Online Published Date:
31 October 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Not one in four law firms fully compliant with UK ML Regulations
Of 512 law firms inspected in 2023/24 (April to April), 110 (23%) were fully compliant with the UK Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs), the Solicitors Regulation Authority says in its latest AML annual report.
Online Published Date:
01 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
UK asset recovery incentivisation scheme "deeply flawed", finds NGO
The mechanism by which confiscated criminal assets are recycled into further UK law enforcement efforts to combat economic crime is opaque and creates perverse incentives, according to research by the campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, published on 4 November.
Online Published Date:
05 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Metro Bank fined UK£16.7m over transaction monitoring misses
A logic error in the code underpinning Metro Bank's automated transaction monitoring has cost it a UK£16,675,200 (US$21,277,972) penalty from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Online Published Date:
12 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Risk assessment - right from the start
If the problem isn't defined, it can't be solved: so with risk - if not specified and assessed it cannot be controlled. The risk-based approach (RBA) - a staple of anti-money laundering literature and standards for nearly two decades - positively insists on proper assessment if limited compliance resource is to be targeted effectively, and yet... organisations struggle to comply, but then it is only this year that the USA has made the RBA a regulatory obligation. Keith Nuthall explores a fundamental, persistent challenge and how technology providers are rising to it.
Online Published Date:
13 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Mule accounts bide time before use, research finds
Mule accounts lie dormant or are used legitimately for eight months, on average, before activated for money laundering, based on the experience of three UK high street banks.
Online Published Date:
13 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
American Life Insurance pays OFAC after agent works around Iran sanctions
American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), part of MetLife, Inc., has settled with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over apparent violation of US sanctions on Iran; it will pay a civil penalty of US$178,421.
Online Published Date:
15 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024
Six UK law firm AML fines posted in four days
Six law firms have paid fines for core anti-money laundering breaches, according to a spate of enforcement notices published on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) website between 12 and 15 November.
Online Published Date:
16 November 2024
Appeared in issue:
319 - 01 December 2024