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India’s tightly regulated tobacco leaf sector, producing the world’s second largest annual output of tobacco leaf at around 800,000 tonnes (following China and just ahead of Brazil), according to the Tobacco Board of India, is investing in modernisation to further strengthen this position, which includes a recent surge in export sales (1).  …

Sustainability is not only a marketing buzzword in the packaging sector, but also a legal and environmental necessity, even if it costs more, packaging experts have told Packaging Gateway. Notably, making recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is more expensive than virgin PET, and due to “limited availability and the high cost of recycled content,” PepsiCo used more virgin plastic than planned in 2022 according to its ESG [environmental, social and governance] 2022 report (1) released earlier this year (2023).…

China’s key government economic body has released restrictions on the use of iron oxide pigments and titanium dioxide, the most important white pigment used in the coatings industry. In July (2023), China’s National Development and Reform Commission and related departments issued an updated Notice on Issuing the Energy Efficiency Benchmark Levels and Baseline Levels in Key Industrial Fields, with 11 additional controls, including 11 key areas including titanium dioxide (TiO2).…

As decentralised finance (DeFI), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and associated crypto-currency based technologies expand in scope, regulators are playing whack-a-mole to try and ensure services are covered by AML/CFT legislation. It is sometimes not fit-for-purpose, with a US Treasury risk assessment (1) released in April (2023) stressing that some DeFI services could legitimately be exempt from Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) AML/CFT rules.…

Remote working boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic and seems set to stay. For AMLOs working outside of the office, multiple security risks abound but can be mitigated if the right procedures are in place and precautions taken.

The pandemic’s initial and fast push of AMLOs and other compliance professionals out of the office forced financial institutions to scramble to get in-house cyber security measures in place to ensure there were no network breaches.…

Every new information technology is a potential double-edged sword for committing and detecting financial crime, including money laundering and terror finance, and the development of large language model (LLM) processing AI systems, such as ChatGPT, is no exception.

Experts have already raised concerns about how these systems could be abused by money launderers, as well as how they may help obliged entities, FIUs and related law enforcement agencies fight dirty money flows.…

Knitting companies based in the European Union (EU) may be told they cannot destroy unsold or returned textiles in future, pushing them to consider design, manufacturing and sourcing changes that will reduce their exposure to a new law.

According to the European Commission, about 5.8 million tonnes of yarn and fabric of all kinds are discarded every year in the EU, approximately 11 kilos per person (1), and their destruction “by economic operators is becoming a widespread environmental problem across the Union, in particular due to the rapid growth of online sales” (2).  …

Swiss bank UBS and its US subsidiaries have paid USD1.435 billion to settle the last of the civil cases stemming from the sub-prime mortgage scandal that spawned the 2008 financial crisis.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on 14 August that the penalties settled a civil action filed in November 2018 for misconduct related to the bank’s underwriting and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in 2006 and 2007.…

Bangladesh is exploring offshore wind power as a key solution for a country seeking energy diversification, but whose dense population restricts land availability for renewable power. In July (2023), a USD1.3 billion investment offer in Bangladesh’s wind power energy from Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a leading green infrastructure fund manager, working with offshore wind developer Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) has boosted this south Asian country’s renewable energy ambitions (1).…

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has proposed an International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000, ‘General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements’. Released for public consultation, the standard is designed to guide limited and reasonable assurance engagements on sustainability information.…