Posts by Arctic Intelligence
Achieving AML/CTF compliance in the legal sector
OPINION: NEW ZEALAND DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS PUBLISH FINDINGS ON AML/CFT COMPLIANCE IN THE LEGAL SECTOR: On 21 July 2020, the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) published the findings for the legal sector (law firms and sole practitioners) on the compliance assessments that it had carried out between January 2019 and January 2020. …
Read MoreDutch banks join forces to combat money laundering and terrorist financing
The coalition, comprising ABN Amro, ING, Rabobank, Triodos Bank and de Volksbank, will establish an agency to monitor their transactions, using Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL) in an effort to identify unusual patterns in payments traffic that individual banks cannot identify. It is estimated that up to €18 billion of criminal money is laundered in the Netherlands…
Read MoreThe fall of Wirecard
Wirecard AG who were “missing” €1.9 billion have now filed for insolvency last month, with CEO Markus Braun being arrested on suspicion of inflating the company’s balance sheet and revenues to make it appear stronger and more attractive for investors and customers. Europe’s largest fintech, heralded for its innovation, Wirecard was undoubtably a leader in…
Read MoreHuman rights sanctions
On 6th July 2020 the UK government announced a ground breaking global sanction regime against Human Rights abusers that will target individuals and organisation involved in some of the gravest human rights violations and abuses around the world. The sanctions came into effect immediately and initially named individuals in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North…
Read MoreEU names additions to list of high-risk third countries
The EU’s 5th Money Laundering Directive broadened the criteria for the European Commission (EC) in assessing high-risk third countries. The EC recently announced that in October 2020 several countries will be added to the list of high-risk third countries, including Barbados, Cambodia, Mauritius, and Ghana. These countries are identified as having strategic deficiencies in their national anti-money…
Read MoreMalta is at risk of being the first EU country to be grey-listed by Moneyval.
Following Malta’s fail grade in September 2019 of it’s anti-money laundering laws (AML/CTF) and their enforcement, Prime Minister Robert Abela has tried to reassure Members of Parliament (MP’s) and the public that he is confident they will pass the assessment due to take place in October 2020. The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) CEO Joseph…
Read MoreAUSTRAC proposes amendments to AML/CTF rules
On 14 July 2020, AUSTRAC, the Australian Government agency responsible for protecting the community from financial crime such as money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF), has released for public consultation proposed amendments to Chapter 46 of the AML/CTF rules. Chapter 46 outlines rules related to “Applicable Customer Identification Procedures” (ACIP) and these proposed amendments aim…
Read More21st July 2020 note from CEO
As we continue to watch the rapid acceleration of COVID-19 both in Australia and overseas create wide-reaching impacts on our business and personal lives it is hard to see a return to anything that resembles business as usual anytime soon. As with any crisis there are always opportunists looking to make a fortune from others…
Read MoreIs your AML/CTF compliance program up to scratch?
OPINION: On June 4th, Westpac released its 48-page response to AUSTRAC’s statement of claim following the conclusion of the Promontory led Advisory Panel tasked with identifying the primary causes for the well documented AML/CTF failings. The findings in this report are by no means exclusive to Westpac. Many of these issues can be commonly found…
Read MoreJune 2020 note from CEO
Since we issued our last newsletter an incredible amount of activity has been happening in the financial crime space globally, that it’s made drawing up a shortlist of things to talk about a bit challenging…! In Australia, the most significant development occurred on June 4th, when Westpac released its 48-page response to AUSTRAC’s statement of…
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