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.
CANADIAN AUTO SECTOR WELCOMES SCRAPPING OF US-FOCUSED EV TAX CREDIT
The Canadian automotive industry has welcomed the deal within the USA’s Democratic Party to propose a revised tax credit on purchases of electric vehicles (EV) in America which extends the payment to EVs made across north America, including Canada and Mexico.…
ZIMBABWE OFF FATF’S GREY LIST – BUT SCEPTICS SAY ITS AML RECORD IS WOEFUL
Zimbabwe was taken off FATF’s grey list in March, but serious issues still abound claim critics of the move – from corruption to large scale gold smuggling, while a controversial law on NGOs may be misused to go after political opponents, they argue.…
UAE’S PURE HARVEST CONSIDERS SECOND SUKUK AS IT LOOKS TO EXPAND TO ASIA
United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Pure Harvest Smart Farms plans to raise funding through a new sukuk (Islamic bond) to support its food-security driven expansion plans, Tariq Sanad, the company’s chief financial officer, told Salaam Gateway.
The agritech firm’s breakthrough farming system that can produce year-round crops in the desert has attracted a diverse mix of investors since its inception in 2016.…
UAE RESEARCHERS SEEK RELIABLE HALAL GELATINE SOURCING FROM CAMELS
Researchers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been developing the extraction of gelatine from camel skin and bones, to boost production of this important manufacturing input that is often sourced from pigs. This creates halal/haram tracing problems for food, drink, medical and cosmetics product manufacturers who use gelatine.…
NETHERLANDS IMPOSES WEAK PUNISHMENTS ON MONEY LAUNDERERS, SAYS FATF
The Netherlands has only moderate effectiveness in its AML/CFT policies regarding supervision, preventative measures, legal persons controls and financial sanctions, according to the latest FATF mutual evaluation report (MER). These assessments now highlight effectiveness assessments alongside technical compliance ratings. And while, overall, FATF concluded that the Netherlands’ AML/CFT was “delivering good results”, it added that the country “needs to do more to prevent legal persons from being used for criminal purposes, strengthen risk-based supervision, and ensure sanctions for money laundering and terrorist financing offences are proportionate and dissuasive”.…
DIGITAL INNOVATORS LOOK TO SPEAK GROWTH IN AFRICAN COTTON PRODUCTION AND TERADE
INTRODUCTION
With the textile industry under pressure from consumers, regulators and standards to become more sustainable, companies are looking at all aspects of the supply chain – including upstream to fibre production. Digitalisation has a key role to play here, especially in supplier countries where the use of such technology is weak – such as in Africa.…
THE METAVERSE – MONEY LAUNDERING’S NEW FRONTIER
If you listen to Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta Platforms, which runs Facebook, humanity is about to take a quantum leap into living lives online as well as offline, interacting with people’s digital representations (avatars) via ‘metaverse’ virtual platforms. The question in AML terms is whether such systems, especially if widely used and interoperable, pose a new and growing risk of dirty money flows?…
NEW GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA – BUT WILL ROBUST AML/CFT REFORM FOLLOW?
Australia’s commitment to strengthen its anti-money laundering legislation is now an eight-year-old promise that has yet to be fulfilled. However, with a change in government in May 2022, with the Labor Party taking power after nine years of government by the right-centre Liberal-National Coalition, there is renewed hope that reform could finally be delivered.…
THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING INTENSIFIES
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a dedicated report, ‘Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade’ in June 2020 (1) and has followed up with further analysis on a topic that is being researched in depth by a wide range of NGOs.…
NEW EGMONT GROUP CHAIR LOOKS TO LEVERAGE FIU EXPERTISE AS AML WORLD FACES NEW POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
Xolisile Khanyile, the director of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has been appointed chair of the Egmont Group (EG) of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), taking over from July for a two -year term. She replaces the Netherlands’ Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, who had served as chair since 2020.…