Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

How should anti-money laundering (AML) officers prepare for a visit by a regulator, be it a scheduled inspection, or the worst-case scenario – an unexpected dawn raid? Experts say institutions need to always be prepared for checks by regulators.

However, this is not simple given a visit to assess an obliged entity’s internal controls’ ability to effectively monitor and manage compliance with national and regional AML policies and procedures can be rare.…

The European Parliament is grappling with the fallout of the Qatargate’ cash-for-influence corruption scandal. Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili has been replaced as the parliament’s vice-president by a Luxembourg socialist, after Kaili was arrested by Brussels police. Officers allege they found EUR1.5 million cash at her home and that of former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, another socialist, from Italy.…

While the Covid-19 pandemic has seen increased spending on anti-fraud departments and corresponding increases in salaries, anti-fraud professionals are keen to explore their career options, with 48% saying they expect to leave their current company within two years.

That figure, of probable concern to HR departments, was culled from an Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) survey of 80,294 members worldwide in February 2022 and released in the ACFE’s 2022 compensation guide published in October (2022).…

The USA department of justice (DoJ) has expanded the benefits available to corporations involved in overseas commercial crime should they cooperate with police and prosecutors, offering them up to a 75% reduction in punishments – up from an earlier 50% maximum.…

The comprehensive and thus far sustained extension of home-based remote working sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled a growing market in surveillance devices helping managers ensure their employees are working rather than shirking. Some employers take a dim view of employees who tell managers they are at work at their desk, but instead are watching Netflix on the sofa.…

The battle between an invading Russia and Ukraine’s defenders has not just been conducted with military force – by January 23 killing 7,068 civilians, said the UN, but also in cyberspace. While lacking the sophistication of attacks carried out by Chinese threat actors, Russian cybercriminals are increasingly probing Ukrainian companies critical to the institutional stability and defence of the country, primarily active in Ukrainian cyberspace for data collection purposes, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1): “Intelligence collection… has been the main focus of Russia’s wartime cyber operations in Ukraine”.…

International solar energy providers are finding business opportunities in Africa as national governments and their development agency partners try to foster growth while targeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG), which encourages access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030 (1).…

The European Union (EU) food and drink industry is preparing to lobby to improve reforms proposed by the European Commission to EU packaging and packaging waste legislation. Industry association FoodDrinkEurope has said they will “require significant improvements to be workable”. In particular, the association is concerned about mandates within a proposed regulation that food and drink companies ensure growing proportions of their packaging be made refillable or reusable.…

THE HUNGARIAN dairy industry and supporting government officials are looking ahead to incoming financial support from the European Union (EU) now that the European Commission has approved the country’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plan for 2023-2027. This has cleared the way for a ЕUR8.4 billion transfer in funding from Brussels, despite the friction between the EU and the Hungarian government, led by populist right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.…

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has formally proposed amendments to IAS 12 Income Taxes to take account of ‘Pillar 2’ of the OECD’s BEPS tax model, suspending rules on accounting for deferred taxes, while its implications are assessed. The IASB has acted because the European Union (EU) in December agreed a directive to make Pillar 2 compulsory in the EU – telling multinationals (and large domestic companies) to pay 15% minimum tax rates in member states where they trade.…