Search Results for: Russia

As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, the European Parliament has approved extending temporary trade access to the European Union (EU) for Ukraine food and drink exports. However, conscious of EU concerns about competition from these supplies, a new regulation allows the EU executive European Commission to impose controls when Ukraine exports disrupt markets of one or more EU member states.…

The European Union’s (EU) new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) is being hailed as a ‘game changer’ in the battle against dirty money by Europe’s lawmakers, even before it officially starts work at its Frankfurt base on July 1, 2025. But it will be a long road to get to full cruising speed, as planned for 2028, when AMLA is projected to directly supervise Europe’s 40 most ML-risky banks and other financial institutions that operate in six or more EU countries.…

The global metal packaging industry is assessing the potential impact on aluminium supplies of US, European Union (EU) and British sanctions against imports of Russian aluminium, which continue to be tightened as Moscow intensifies its invasion of Ukraine.

These sanctions are more serious for Russia and its metal producers than they look, writes Russian economist Yevgeny Kogan on his Telegram channel.…

Cryptocurrency scams are a serious threat and have plenty of room to grow in scale, yet the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has warned in its latest biennial 2024 ‘Report to the Nations’ on occupational fraud that the proportion of swindles undertaken in the crypto sector has been shrinking.…

USA FIU the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has released detailed guidance on how Iran funds Middle East allies labelled as terror groups by Washington, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Houthis and militias in Iraq and Syria.

Stressing that the Iranian government funnels funding through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), FinCEN said revenues are generated by sales of commodities, especially oil, to countries eschewing western sanctions against Iran, such as China, which bought 1.3 million barrels a day during 2023.…

International organisations and academics are warning central banks to take AML/CFT into account as they develop central bank digital currencies (CBDC), although pressures to guarantee privacy might undermine such controls. According to 2023 research from the central banks’ central bank, the Basel, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 93% of central banks are now exploring or developing CBDCs (1).…

As the country reels from an alleged gold smuggling scandal, Zimbabwe’s AML/CFT performance has shown how technical compliance with FATF rules is not enough, its Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) director general has told MLB: “It is one thing to have a compliant legal framework and it is another thing to make sure the regime is being used effectively to fight money laundering,” Oliver Chiperesa told MLB.…

A new FATF survey has suggested significant advances are being made in imposing AML/CFT on the use of virtual assets (VA) and on virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with 49 out of 58 countries surveyed establishing controls. The survey assessed all FATF members plus 20 jurisdictions with materially important VASP activity, including Russia, which remains suspended from FATF because of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.…

The European Parliament has pushed the European Commission into a politically awkward position by refusing to follow FATF’s lead in removing the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Gibraltar and Panama from the European Union (EU) AML blacklist. MEPs yesterday (Tuesday April 23) voted to block a Commission delegated act stating these jurisdictions were no longer considered ‘high-risk third countries’ as regards AML.…

The supply chain problems by Covid-19 and worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Gaza have made clothing and textile companies look hard at near-sourcing and reshoring production. Luckily for them, recent major innovations in digitisation and artificial intelligence have made such plans more practical.…