September 2020 – note from CEO

September 24, 2020

Over the last month or so we have started to see some disparity emerging in the way in which international financial crime regulators are treating regulated entities where they identify breaches or material non-compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority, which has historically been fairly active in enforcing non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws suddenly announced that they were dropping 50% of their active investigations into breaches with these laws, which is likely to result in apathy among the thousands of small to medium sized businesses in complying with AML/CTF laws and exposing them to exploitation by organised criminal networks. (Read more…).

The tables have seemed to have turned in Australia, a country not well known for its enforcement of non-compliance with money laundering and terrorism financing laws, seems to finally be upping the ante on certain businesses.

First, we saw Crown Resorts face the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s inquiry following allegations of its links with Asian organised criminal networks (here), in particular the claim by former Executive Chairman, John Alexander that it was told its was a “completely compliant, gold star customer” for its AML/CTF Program, only to be corrected by Neil Jeans, principal of Initialism (and co-founder of AML Accelerate) who told the enquiry that this was “not an accurate statement” and not reflective of his comments to Crown’s risk management committee and Board of Directors in August. (Read more…)

And just a few weeks ago, AUSTRAC took action against State Street Bank and Trust Company for failing to report 99 International Funds Transfer Instructions (IFTIs) in the form of an infringement notice for over $1.24m, which further highlights the importance AUSTRAC places on the timely, complete and accurate reporting of IFTI reporting obligations. (Read more…)

At Arctic Intelligence, our team has had a very busy month as we released the latest version of our enterprise risk assessment platform that now allows our clients to maintain data sovereignty in whichever jurisdiction they choose, which we are hoping will accelerate the adoption and speed of global rollout across our major partners, including Deloitte. (Read more…)

If you would like to find out more about how Arctic Intelligence’s financial crime risk assessment solutions help strengthen our clients defences, please drop us a line to arrange a demonstration.

Stay safe everyone!

– Anthony Quinn, Founder & CEO Arctic Intelligence

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