Category: Law, Regulation & Guidance

UAE Off EU Watchlist, Critics Say Reforms Fall Short

Law, Regulation & Guidance, Money Laundering
Transparency International has criticized the European Parliament’s decision to approve the removal of the United Arab Emirates from the EU’s high-risk list for money laundering and terrorist financing, warning that the move undermines efforts to protect the bloc’s financial system. “While the UAE has introduced a series of welcome reforms, it’s still too soon to judge whether these have significantly strengthened the country’s defences against dirty money,” Eka Rostomashvili, campaigner at Transparency International, told OCCRP. She pointed to persistent gaps in enforcement, especially in the real estate sector, where suspicious transactions exposed by journalists remain uninvestigated. An investigation Dubai Unlocked,…

The EBA consults on new rules related to the anti- money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism package

Law, Regulation & Guidance
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on four draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) that will be part of the EBA’s response to the European Commission’s Call for Advice. These technical standards will be central to the EU’s new AML/CFT regime and will shape how institutions and supervisors will comply with their AML/CFT obligations under the new AML/CFT package. The consultation runs until 6 June 2025. The proposed RTSs focus on the following aspects for which the EBA is providing its advice: the way the new EU Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism…

Guidance on the failure to prevent fraud offence (ECCTA 2023)

Fraud, Law, Regulation & Guidance
Section 199 of the UK’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 sets out a corporate criminal offence for failure to prevent fraud. UK Finance has developed financial services guidance on behalf of our members to supplement guidance issued by the Home Office under section 204 of the Act. This UK Finance sector-specific guidance is not statutory guidance and is advisory only. If there is a conflict between this sector-specific guidance and the Home Office guidance, the Home Office guidance will take priority. The document sets out sector-specific guidance for the purposes of interpretation of the failure to prevent fraud…

What Happens When the Fight Against Corruption Hits Pause? The White House Halts FCPA Enforcement

Corruption, Law, Regulation & Guidance
Key Takeaways Executive Order Impact: President Trump’s February 2025 executive order pauses FCPA enforcement for 180 days, giving the DOJ time to review and adjust its approach to tackling international corruption.Business Implications: While the core of the FCPA remains unchanged, the temporary pause could benefit U.S. companies by reducing immediate enforcement risks, though it leaves uncertainty around pending cases.Foreign Competition: Foreign companies, especially those in countries with weaker anti-corruption laws, could benefit from the pause as U.S. competitors receive temporary relief. However, the DOJ may still target foreign firms in key sectors.Compliance and Risk: Businesses should not let the pause…

Countering Russian sanctions evasion – guidance for exporters

Law, Regulation & Guidance, Sanctions
This guidance is intended to support UK exporters in understanding Russian circumvention practices and in reducing the risk of their business being targeted by those seeking to evade sanctions. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this guidance, it does not constitute legal advice and cannot be relied upon as such. It remains the responsibility of UK businesses to fully determine the extent of their specific sanctions risk exposure, and to develop an appropriate set of safeguards and controls tailored to their particular circumstances.  Consulting the external screening databases indicated in this document…

FATF publishes guidance on Beneficial Ownership and Transparency of Legal Arrangements

Law, Regulation & Guidance, Money Laundering
Following the February 2023 revisions to FATF Recommendation 25 on Beneficial ownership and transparency of legal arrangements, the FATF has updated its risk-based guidance for this Recommendation. The guidance complements the existing guidance on Recommendation 24 on legal persons and aims to help stakeholders from the public and private sectors to implement the new requirements more effectively. The Guidance aims to assist countries and the private sector to better understand how transparency requirements apply to legal arrangements. It sets out practical guidance on how to understand and assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with trusts and similar…

MAS – Strengthening Financial Institutions Countering the Financing of Terrorism Controls

Counter Terrorist Financing, Law, Regulation & Guidance, Terrorism
MAS conducted an industry-wide survey of CFT-related controls, and followed up with a series of thematic reviews to assess FIs’ TF risk understanding and examine the effectiveness of their CFT-related controls. This paper sets out MAS’ key observations, and highlights our supervisory expectations that FIs should review against their own controls. FIs should benchmark themselves against the practices and supervisory expectations set out in this paper in a risk-based and proportionate manner, and conduct a gap analysis. In doing so, FIs should give due regard to the risk profile of their business activities and customers. Where FIs observe any gaps…

Property register fines worth £1bn not yet imposed

Law, Regulation & Guidance, Regulation
The UK has so far failed to impose fines worth as much as £1bn on foreign companies breaking a landmark transparency law, BBC analysis reveals.Since January, overseas firms that own UK property can be fined up to £2,500 a day unless they declare their owners.Thousands are still to do so, including firms which have been linked to oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich, but no fines have yet been issued.The government said it was “building cases” against unregistered companies.The register was introduced as part of the Economic Crime Act in February 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ministers said it would…

Publication of the ABC Guidance

Bribery, Corruption, Law, Regulation & Guidance, Wolfsberg
Today the Wolfsberg Group is publishing its updated Anti-Bribery and Corruption Compliance Programme Guidance. This document updates the 2017 version and it is designed to promote a culture of ethical business practices and compliance with ABC legal and regulatory requirements. The Guidance is a risk-based approach for the adequate development and implementation of compliance programmes to prevent, detect, and report acts of Bribery and Corruption and identifies areas of elevated risk. While no ABC compliance programme can prevent or protect against Bribery and Corruption risks completely, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, this guidance can help the industry mitigate Bribery…

UK Government proposes new powers to block London Stock Exchange listings backed by dirty money

Law, Regulation & Guidance
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT is planning to start blocking companies backed by illicit funds that pose a national security threat from listing on the London Stock Exchange, according to new plans announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. In an announcement Tuesday, the treasury department said it will launch a public consultation within the next two weeks with proposals for stricter rules on flotations. “The UK’s reputation for clean, transparent markets makes it an attractive global financial centre. We’re planning to bolster this by taking a targeted new power to block listings that pose a national security risk, and will…

Dutch Central Bank reverses decision on tighter checks for crypto withdrawals

Digital Currencies, Law, Regulation & Guidance
The Dutch Central Bank, DNB, has reversed its decision to enforce stricter measures for withdrawing cryptocurrencies from exchanges, according to Dutch crypto exchange Bitonic. In January, the central bank set out rules that required crypto exchanges to collect additional data from their users when they withdraw cryptocurrencies. Namely, users had to add the recipient address — where they are sending funds to — to their whitelist and provide a photo to “prove” that they indeed owned the address. Crypto exchanges in the region, such as Bitstamp and Bitonic, swiftly started enforcing the requirements. The central bank’s reversal on the policy…

Former Australian head of world’s largest crypto exchange calls for more regulation

Digital Currencies, Law, Regulation & Guidance
The former Australian head of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has called for greater regulation of crypto trading platforms as more institutional and retail investors begin to eye off digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum. Jeff Yew, who resigned as Binance Australia’s chief executive officer in April, said he believed while Australia was more advanced with its regulation compared with other economies, much more still needed to be done to prevent everyday investors from being exploited by dodgy operators. “It really hurts me to see players exploiting that lack of [regulatory] clarity with users,” he said. “That’s not…

Hong Kong to Bar Retail Investors from Crypto Trading

Digital Currencies, Law, Regulation & Guidance
Hong Kong’s FSTB has issued consultation conclusions on the new licensing regime for VASPs and a new registration regime for precious metals dealers. Hong Kong’s FSTB (Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau) has published consultation conclusions setting out the new AML/CTF requirements that will be introduced for the VASP (virtual asset services provider) and DPMS (dealers in precious metals and stones) sectors. In November 2020, the FSTB issued a consultation on legislative proposals to introduce a new licensing regime for VASPs, as well as a two-tier registration regime for the DPMS sector, among other amendments. The consultation received 79 submissions,…