Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
EU ROUND UP - EU REFORMS VAT SYSTEM TO SQUEEZE OUT FRAUD, AS LATEST REPORTS INDICATE FIGHT AGAINST FINANCIAL CRIME IS STILL FLAILING
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has reached political agreement on creating a new EU-wide e-commerce VAT transaction database, which EU member states hope will help fight fraud. The move comes as a European Commission report indicates that the EU’s expensive battle against fraud continues to struggle to achieve results.…
UK PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR BANKS TO REFUND FRAUD VICTIMS
British banks should refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) transfer fraud, where fraudsters trick people into transferring large sums to them, often using hacked email accounts from genuine companies, according to the UK House of Commons Treasury select committee. Its report ‘Economic Crime: Consumer View’ says that UK bank customers lost more than GBP600 million (USD771 million) to fraud in the first six months of this year (2019), calls for the voluntary code of conduct on compensation for APP victims that British banks introduced in May, to be made compulsory through legislation.…
ECB REVOKES AUSTRIAN BANK LICENCE OVER MONEY LAUNDERING
Money laundering and due diligence failings led the European Central Bank (ECB) to revoke the licence of one of Austria’s oldest financial institutions with immediate effect last week (on November 15). The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA – Finanzmarktaufsicht Österreich), which had recommended the move to the ECB, announced that the European Union (EU) institution had revoked the licence of Anglo Austrian AAB Bank AG, which was known as Bank Meinl until June. …
PAKISTAN DIGITAL TEXTILE MARKET EXPANDING, WITH MUCH MORE GROWTH TO COME
With Pakistan’s digital textile printing industry production growing at an average of at least 5% annually in recent years, according to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), with the country’s digital textile printing industry being an important focus of investment in a sometimes-troubled textile sector.…
AUSTRALIA DAIRY SECTOR FEARS IT WILL LOSE OUT FROM EU TRADE DEAL MANDATING GI PROTECTION
A free trade deal between Europe and Australia is in the making but European Union (EU) trade negotiators have managed to generate some serious concerns among Australian dairy industry in the process. The EU wants Australia to recognise the exclusive rights of EU cheesemakers to the traditional names of almost 60 different types of cheeses through Australia recognising EU geographical indications (GI) within any agreement.…
ALSTOM FINED GBP15 MILLION FOR TUNISIAN TRAM CONTRACT BRIBES
The British subsidiary of French engineering giant Alstom has been fined GBP15 million (USD19.37 million) plus GBP1.4 million (USD1.8 million) costs over bribes it paid to win a key contract to build trams to serve the Tunisian capital Tunis. The fine comes more than a year after Alstom Network UK’s April 2018 conviction for bribery and corruption, in a case brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). …
ITALIAN CHEESE CAUGHT IN AIRBUS-BOEING DISPUTE CROSSFIRE
RETALIATORY duties imposed by the USA in a trade dispute with the European Union (EU) over aeroplane subsidies will, argues Italian farmers union, Coldiretti, shrink Italian food exports to the US by 20%, with the Italian speciality cheese sector being the hardest hit.…
POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS INCREASE GREEN ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND INVESTMENT WORLDWIDE
As national, regional and international legislation nudges the world away from its reliance on fossil fuels, corporations are increasingly sourcing renewable energy through the mechanism of green power purchase agreements (PPAs), whereby companies (and also utilities) act as an off-taker, making commitments for future renewable energy payments.…
USA HEMP SUPPLIES COULD INCREASE FOR BEAUTY SECTOR NOW USDA RULES ARE IN PLACE
The USA cosmetics industry is expecting to benefit from recently promulgated United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules that would facilitate increased legal cultivation of the hemp plant – the botanical source for cannabidiol (CBD), an ingredient already widely available in the US for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications.…
HEALTHY COMPETITIVE MARKET FOR BEAUTY PACKAGING SEES INVESTOR CAPITAL DRIVE INCREASING MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
A highly competitive market combined with healthy sums of investor capital look set to drive forward an increase in merger/acquisition (M/A) activity in the cosmetic packaging sector, as companies seek to deliver added value to existing customer bases and extend their footprint into new territories, both geographic and product ranges.…