Blog
UK FCA unveils 2020/2021 business plan
OPINION: Earlier this week the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued its business plan for 2020-2021, which outlines their priorities for the financial year including the industry sectors that it will focus its attention on, its key financial crime prevention priorities and specific activities it plans to undertake. The FCA’s key priorities are threefold:- sharing…
Read MoreAnti-money laundering law breaches
OPINION: BREAKING BAD (NEWS) – While the world is in panic there has probably never been a better time to break some bad news and yesterday it was HSBC Australia’s turn to self report compliance breaches to AUSTRAC. At this point in time it is unclear what obligations the compliance breaches relate to, how many…
Read MoreWhat is the true cost of financial crime compliance?
OPINION: Earlier this week LexisNexis Risk Solutions released the results of its global True Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Study which polled nearly 900 financial crime compliance decision makers and found that financial institutions spent $181 billion on financial crime compliance last year. In Europe, financial institutions spent 3 to 4 times ($137bn) what their nearest…
Read MoreRisk management during COVID-19
OPINION: Last week, the President of FATF has issued a statement encouraging the governments of FATF-member countries to utilise the principles of the risk-based approach in addressing challenges presented by COVID-19, as well as, remaining vigilant to new and emerging threats resulting from an increase in fraud and exploitation scams including trafficking in counterfeit medicines,…
Read MoreGreens pressuring the Australian government to tighten AML laws
The Australian Government has been accused of being hypocritical as Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and others have all been calling out for Westpac to be held accountable for the 23 million breaches of AML/CTF laws when they are not holding themselves to account. Anthony Quinn, CEO of Arctic Intelligence, a software business specialising in audit,…
Read MoreArctic Intelligence awarded Deloitte 2019 Technology Fast 50 Rising Star Award
Three months after being named RegTech Start-Up of the Year 2019, Arctic Intelligence has been recognised in the Deloitte 2019 Technology Fast 50 Rising Star awards. Now in its 19th year in Australia, the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program ranks fast growing public or private technology companies based on percentage revenue growth over the past…
Read MorePoor legal advice led to AML/CTF breaches at Afterpay
In June 2019, AUSTRAC ordered Afterpay to appoint an external auditor after the agency identified concerns with Afterpay’s compliance with anti-money-laundering laws. The final report from external independent auditor Neil Jeans was provided to AUSTRAC today. In the final report, Jeans broadly praised Afterpay’s compliance efforts and attributed the breaches to poor advice from an…
Read MoreFATF suspends Australia’s AML law evaluation
The Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) has suspended the evaluation of financial crime laws mid-way through an examination of Australia’s progress in the area. A FATF spokesman said, “In October, the FATF decided to temporarily pause the start of all scheduled follow-up assessments – this is not an Australia specific decision.” But was there more to…
Read MoreNAB may face heavy penalties after admitting money-laundering breaches
Hot on the heels of Westpac’s announcement three weeks ago that it has provisioned hundreds of millions of dollars for additional remediation costs and a potential fine by AUSTRAC, over its failure to report “a large number” of International Funds Transfer Instructions (IFTIs) it was NABs turn to make an announcement. In its annual report…
Read MoreProperty continues to be the AML weak link in Australia
Australia is still lagging behind global standards in the developed world when it comes to combating the flow of illicit money entering the property market. AUSTRAC has estimated that there were AUD$1billion worth of suspicious transactions in the Australian property market from China in the 2016 fiscal year. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has…
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