Search Results for: South Africa

SINCE the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the USA, the UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union (EU), foreign financial institutions have – in theory – been allowed to do business with Iran.  But the reality – as ever with relations with Iran – is proving to be a good deal more complex.…

A new set of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies could offer criminals an opportunity to conduct illicit financial activities and evade anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, aided by an undeveloped patchwork of fragmented systems of regulation.

AML industry analysts have warned that urgent international action is required to curb cryptocurrency ML, with criminals increasingly switching funds between cryptocurrencies offering anonymity features, hindering the detection and identification of users.…

AUSTRALIA may have been strengthening its anti-money laundering (AML) systems, but an admission last year (2017) by the country’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), about AML failures was a clear reminder that reforms are still needed. The Commonwealth Bank admitted that it had breached Australian AML laws 53,700 times.…

STANDARD Chartered Bank has been hit by another enforcement action over past anti-money laundering (AML) failures, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announcing today (March 19) that it was fining local subsidiaries Singapore dollars SGD6.54 million (USD4.85 million). The fines break down to SGD5.2 million on the Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Branch (SCBS) and SGD1.2 million on Standard Chartered Trust (Singapore) Ltd (SCTS).…

INVESTORS at this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention have been voicing concerns that the supply of key minerals used to make batteries may not be able to keep pace with demand.

At an investors forum dealing with energy materials and technologies, a series of graphite, cobalt and manganese miners highlighted the increasing demand for the minerals, and the lack of sufficient supplies to meet future expectations.…

WHILE United States President Donald Trump’s imposition of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium on March 8 included a waiver for Canadian and Mexican exporters, his administration continues to stress this relief could be temporary.

In the March 8 presidential proclamation imposing the steel duties, Trump stressed “ongoing discussions with these countries” alongside his decision “to exempt steel articles imports from these countries from the tariff, at least at this time”. …

PRESIDENT Donald Trump today (March 5) signalled to Canada and Mexico that he would use his planned imposition of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium as a bargaining chip to wring concessions in the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has warned that is prepared to impose temporary safeguard duties on imports into the EU of USA-made knitwear, as it launched its reaction to the establishment of American import duties on aluminium and steel imports. EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström told the European Parliament on March 22 that the preparations would continue despite the US exempting the EU from its metal duties until May 1, to allow discussions to continue.…

A STALLED project to make and test aviation biofuel in South Africa has offered a test case on how supply chain problems can prevent such innovative initiatives from making progress.

The launch of Project Solaris in 2014 as an international initiative between aviation and fuel sector partners to develop sustainable jet biofuel from the solaris crop attracted substantial media coverage for heralding in a new era in African aviation.…

Brussels South Charleroi Airport has has to rethink its development plans after a January 25 ruling in the European Union’s (EU) General Court forced a 500% hike in its concession fee.  The court (part of the European Court of Justice) threw out Charleroi’s challenge to the European’s Commission 2004 decision that the EUR3 million annual concession fee that Belgium’s Wallonia Region was charging the airport was an illegal subsidy under the bloc’s state aid rules.…