Category: KYC

U.K. Regulator Publishes 5 Top Advices to Ensure Banks and Fintech Adhere to Russian Sanctions Regime

KYC, Sanctions
BRITISH regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has published new advice on an adhering to the country’s sanctions regime. The authority “the unprecedented size, scale, and complexity of sanctions imposed by the UK Government and international partners since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has further increased our focus on firms’ sanctions systems and controls.” The FCA said it had been engaged in a substantial programme of work assessing the systems and controls relating to sanctions compliance for over 90 firms across a range of sectors. This has involved proactive assessments of firms’ controls, using a new analytics-based tool, as well as the…

IWD2023: Women in Financial Crime; and why we must now operate in the age of continuous approach to KYC enabled by widely available tools

KYC
So it was such an honour and privilege for me to recently chair the incredible ‘Women in Financial Crime’ Summit. Indeed some key takeaways and reflections on that day, attended by hundreds of like-minded AFC professionals globally, that stand out for me. Financial crime mutates, evolves, adapts and, because of that, the response we provide to it – as individuals, institutions, governments, and societies – must constantly evolve, too. Debate and education are what fuels this evolution and makes us stronger. In a way, change was one of the unspoken themes of our conversation at the Summit. ‘Part of the…

FATF Publishes its ‘Tougher’ New Beneficial Ownership Standards

KYC, Regulation
FATF today published its “tougher” global beneficial ownership standards to assist countries and financial institutions to prevent shell companies being safe havens for illicit proceeds. The task force’s Recommendation 24 requires countries to ensure that competent authorities have access to adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on the true owners of companies. The Paris-based body has also updated the guidance that will help countries implement the revised Recommendation 24. The guidance explains types and sources of relevant information, and mechanism and sources to obtain such information. This includes the multi-pronged approach, which consists of combining information from, among others, companies themselves,…

AML efforts of European banks hampered by deficient on-boarding

KYC, Money Laundering
The anti-money laundering efforts of European banks is being hamstrung by failures to manage key customer data and perform proper due diligence, regulators say Banks’ failure to collect know-your-customer (KYC) data and their tendency to manage high-risk customer due diligence manually are hampering their anti-money laundering (AML) efforts, according to regulators in the United Kingdom. Further, many banks’ assessment of financial crime risk has also been found to be inadequate. Some UK banks, are failing to collect customer information such as income and occupation details. In some cases, customer risk assessment frameworks are underdeveloped or non-existent, which translates into poor…

Russian oligarchs the ‘most sophisticated in the world’ at dodging KYC and evading sanctions

KYC, Sanctions
THE CAPACITY OF Russian oligarchs to work around rigorous KYC rules and international sanctions is the strongest in the world, a former FATF President has warned. Their methods were so capable that their identity may remain hidden even if a financial institution makes every effort to root out accurate beneficial ownership information, he suggested. In the same speech, he also hit out at the Russian FIU Rosfinmonitoring claiming that it was “firmly under the control” of the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and headed by a sixteen-year veteran of the Soviet KGB. Billingslea believes the FIU allows state-sponsored money-laundering schemes…