SEPA is the Single Euro Payments Area, covering Euro denominated payments for 36 countries in Europe. Whilst most European countries have had access to SEPA Instant Credit Transfers (SCT Inst) since November 2017, they have not been widely adopted as quickly as had been hoped. This is about to change thanks to a new mandate from the European Commission (EC).
February 28th, 2024
First-party fraud is when the fraudster doubles as a customer. Fraudsters will open accounts for the specific purpose of executing their fraud schemes. One common example these days are money mules who open accounts for fraudsters, enabling them to transfer money through multiple banks and countries to avoid scrutiny. In this blog, we cover how to stop losses to first-party and money mule fraud, along with how to move away from a narrow definition of third-party fraud loss on the profit and loss account (P&L) to a wider definition as per the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Fraud Classifier.
February 27th, 2024
AML regulations are designed to safeguard the integrity of financial institutions (FIs) in a fast-paced, evolving landscape—a robust anti-money laundering compliance program can’t be overstated. By following regulations, FIs can protect themselves from becoming unwitting accomplices to illicit activities. While firms implement stringent AML measures, the onus of ensuring compliance often falls on the shoulders of senior management. In the event of compliance failures, these leaders may find themselves facing not only professional repercussions but also personal liability. Compliance cannot be achieved without a strong ethical culture led by senior management who play a pivotal role in defining, shaping, and fostering this culture. In this role, senior management would be the driving force behind ethical behavior, regulatory adherence, and overall corporate integrity.
February 26th, 2024
The FCA recently published the latest edition of its Market Watch newsletter (MW) 76, in which it revisited concerns about the practices known as flying and printing. The FCA had previously raised these practices as being of-concern in MW 57 back in November 2018.
February 13th, 2024
AML risk assessments are a first step toward protecting a financial institution (FI) from breaching financial crime regulations and stopping criminals from accessing financial services in addition to combatting pervasive money laundering.
February 6th, 2024
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has cast its net again, releasing its comprehensive 2024 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report. This document serves as a compass for the financial industry, charting not only past activities but also the course for future compliance. It paints a vivid picture of FINRA’s priorities, shedding light on areas where they’ve tightened their focus and highlighting potential compliance hurdles for member firms in the year ahead.
January 22nd, 2024
The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) came into effect across the European Union (EU) in 2016. It aims to increase market integrity and investor protection, enhancing the attractiveness of securities markets for capital raising and combating market abuse behaviors, including insider dealing, market manipulation, and unlawful disclosure of inside information. MAR replaces the previous Market Abuse Directive (MAD) and strengthened the pre-existing EU and U.K. market abuse framework by extending its scope to new markets, new platforms and new behaviors. Since Brexit, the United Kingdom has adopted its own version of MAR (called U.K. MAR) which presently mostly parallels the legacy EU MAR, however this may vary over time.
January 16th, 2024
2023 was an eventful year, marked by new regulations and legislation, technology advancements, and political strife. We continued to work together and strengthen as a community to combat financial crime.