Search Results for: Spain

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).…

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 number of companies producing spent bleaching earth oil (SBEO) as a biofuel feedstock has been increasing, but despite the opportunities that new regulations and technologies offer, logistics, the lack of feedstock and costs remain major challenges.

That utilising bleaching earths and clays is a good idea is clear.…

The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has given its final approval to an EU directive insisting that EU member states criminalise and impose dissuasive punishments on the deliberate evasion of sanctions (1).

This law has been drafted amidst rising concern that Russia and Russians are effectively bypassing the slew of sanctions ordered following their country’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine (2).…

Portuguese academic associations are warning that a majority of students are considering emigration after they complete their courses, because job opportunities on offer are to scant and poorly paid to secure a good living. 

Surveys by the Coimbra Academic Association of the University of Coimbra (founded in 1290) and the Porto Academic Federation (Federação Académica do Porto – FAP), a platform for all HE student associations in Portugal’s second city, released worrying data before the country’s March parliamentary elections.…

Accountants and their clients within the European Union (EU) have had to avoid trading with an increasing number of sanctioned individuals and companies, especially in Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine. Now, with sanctions evasion being criminalised across the EU under a new proposed law, the risk of exposure to sanctions for EU companies and their accountants and auditors has risen further – both when dealing with actors subverting these measures and when undermining sanctions themselves, of course.…

Technology is fundamental for higher education (HE) providers, but for many managers in the sector it remains “something of a black box” a collection of essays published by the Oxford, UK-based Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has warned. https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2024/03/28/technology-foundations-for-twenty-first-century-higher-education/

“We would like the digital university experience to be (…) responsive, intuitive, connecting and personalised,” writes Professor Karen O’Brien, vice-chancellor and warden at northern England’s Durham University, “even though procurement processes, uneven technological development and regulatory controls mean that a ‘seamless’ straight-to-smartphone student experience is still some way off”.…

The only university of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, or Western Sahara, continues to teach and graduate students, despite the military stalemate that has persisted before and since its founding in 2012, which has left Morocco controlling 80% of the territory.…

The effectiveness of cross-border collaboration between national and international law enforcement agencies has been demonstrated by recent raids and arrests in the European Union (EU). The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in February (2024) and Swedish police worked with EU judicial agency Eurojust in February (2024) to breach a large-scale cross-border carousel VAT fraud.…

Attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthi Islamic militant group from Yemen are creating significant concerns for the European chemical industry, including makers of dyes and textile finishing chemicals in Germany.

Over the past two months, trade volumes through the Suez Canal have dropped by 42%, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).…