Search Results for: Climate change

BY ALAN OSBORN

HAS the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) taken on more than it can handle at present? In proposing that tax crimes be made a predicate offence for money laundering as part of its reform of its 40+9 Recommendations, the FATF has picked a fight with a number of heavyweights in the sector and may have a real struggle on its hands.…

BY MARK ROWE and MJ DESCHAMPS

IN Russia, politics is everything, and politics invariably means what the state’s two figureheads – Dmitri Medvedev, the president, and Vladimir Putin, former president and prime minister – determine.

So when noises are heard coming from the Kremlin signalling a change in attitude towards green energy, the wise betting is that there is political weight behind such moves.…

BY MEGAN DETRIE

LIBYA: New regime plans September university relaunch

Megan Detrie

Major concerns have been raised about a draft European Union (EU) plan to attract highly qualified immigrants because of its ability to fuel an intense brain drain from Africa.…

BY MARIANNE BROWN

STABLE large developing countries have obvious advantages over small states and those facing civil conflict, in terms of creating effective anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) systems. But given many are today in the throes of rapid economic growth and transformation into consumer societies, their governments have a lot of priorities to juggle, and keeping close tabs on dirty money might not be one of them.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE USE of third parties to provide verification that anti-money laundering checks such as CDD (customer due diligence) have been properly carried out is fraught with legal and other difficulties. It is, not surprisingly, one of the areas where banks and others have urged the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to consider changes in its official recommendations during its current comprehensive review.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

RUSSIAN businesses could return to widespread borrowing from criminal sources in any repeat of the 2008-09 recession and credit crunch, the country’s financial watchdog has warned as continuing global turmoil hits interbank lending.

"We are facing a situation where criminal capital is increasingly being used for lending to business, thereby replacing the legal banking sector," said Yury Chikhanchin, head of the federal financial monitoring Service, Rosfinmonitoring.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE CHINESE government has made it clear that controlling inflation is one of its primary goals, well aware that consumer societies hate growing prices, especially for commonly used items such as personal care products. And with Beijing never being afraid of government intervention, it has pressured major companies in the sector not to raise prices, especially for toiletries and soaps.…

BY SERAJ ELALEM and DAVE YIN

LIBYA: Universities face transformation after armed struggle

Seraj Elalem

Full report on the University World News site

LIBYA: Universities face transformation after armed struggle

Seraj Elalem

WITH the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the higher education sector in Libya can look forward to a freer future, where universities have more control over their curricula and hopefully better funding.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The recent 100% acquisition of UK voice and data communications company Airwave Solutions by Australian-based banking group Macquarie Group is the latest example of an investment company taking over a telco, writes MJ Deschamps. The Australian group’s Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II (MEIF II) already owned just over 50% of Airwave, and is now buying all the stock.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

WITH Greece on the brink of financial default, and consumer spending power diminishing, the country’s consumers are less than concerned about looking their best, at a time where they are being forced to cut down on even the essentials – thus posing a challenge for the Greek cosmetics industry.…