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The European Union (EU) has been busy chiselling the regulatory edifice of its much-vaunted European Capital Markets Union (CMU), but this growing legal framework has yet to deliver the deep capital pools that its framers envisaged.

Indeed, speaking at the European Banking Congress, in Frankfurt, on November 17, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde, bemoaned the lack of available EU capital (1):

“Today, European start-ups attract less than half the funding of their US counterparts, while the volume of investments in scale-ups in the United States is more than four times greater than in Europe,” she stressed.…

With consumers becoming increasingly health conscious worldwide, demand for vegan chocolate, replacing dairy ingredients with plant-based materials, is growing fast.

According to US-based Grand View Research, the global vegan confectionery market – dominated by chocolate – is anticipated to generate USD2.62 billion in annual revenues by 2030, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% from 2023’s USD1.23 billion.…

Implementing international sanctions is never easy, but the sanctions regime on Iran is highly complex, buffeted by shifting diplomatic stances. With its Security Council ally Russia relying on Iranian military and technology supplies for it to pursue its invasion of Ukraine, time-limited UN restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme officially lapsed on October 18.…

While the global economy has not performed as badly in 2023, as inflation-focused doomsayers predicted (the International Monetary Fund has projected 3% growth for 2023 and 2024, down from 3.5% in 2022), companies are still struggling, especially with interest rate rises.…

The City of London Police (COLP), the lead force on fraud and cybercrime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has unveiled its first ever five-year plan, a ‘National Policing Strategy for Fraud, Economic and Cyber Crime 2023 – 2028′ (1).

The strategy’s aim is to improve police response to fraud, economic and cybercrime by delivering on three cross-cutting strategic objectives:

*Improve outcomes for victims – through a new, “innovative” Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting and Analysis Service (FCCRAS) that replaces Action Fraud (the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime) in 2024;

*Proactively pursue offenders – through a shift to proactive, intelligence led investigations; and

*Protect people and businesses from these threats – by launching a new ‘PROTECT’ network of anti-fraud and cybercrime resources, combining systems and strengthening national co-ordination.…

Brazil generated 92.8% of its electricity from low or zero carbon sources during the first nine months of 2023, producing more clean power by proportion of overall output among all G20 countries in 2022, with a share of 89.1%, according to data released by London, UK-based global energy thinktank Ember (1).…

Policy initiatives aimed at reshoring large sections of the US automotive supply chain could seriously restrict the growth of the country’s electric vehicle (EV) market, a key UK motor industry conference was told on Wednesday (Oct 18). Speaking at the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) Global Trade Conference, in London, David Schwietert, chief policy officer at the Washington DC-headquartered Alliance for Automotive Innovation, aired concerns about the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) manufacturing incentives.…

Pulling out of the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) world ranking of universities will not affect Utrecht University’s standing or popularity for current or future students. That was the message of Professor Dr Henk Kummeling, Rector Magnificus of the Netherlands’ university, whose areas of responsibility include student policy, academic affairs and cooperation in higher education.…

The Great Lakes region in cenztral and eastern Africa is exceedingly resource rich, and being beset by instability and conflict, it is highly attractive for illicit trade and financial crime fuelling money laundering. A new European Union (EU) Great Lakes Strategy is trying to promote the rule of law in the region – notably Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – but faces major challenges.…

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has sparked an unprecedented level of international sanctions. However, it has also caused an unprecedented wave of sanctions evasion.

June’s (2023) plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had a clear message for the global anti-money laundering community, which includes organisations fighting sanctions evasion: “FATF reiterates that all jurisdictions should be vigilant to current and emerging risks from the circumvention of measures taken against the Russian Federation in order to protect the international financial system.”…