News
Senior U.K. Treasury Official Says International AML Efforts Not Succeeding
By Kieran Beer
printDespite having global standards in place for decades and financial institutions spending "an absolute fortune" on compliance, the international anti-money laundering effort is failing, according to a British official. Speaking before an audience of European compliance officers, the head of HM Treasury's anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist finance policy, David Lewis, said that the global effort to tamp down financial crime is "not really working." Lewis made the remarks during a speech at the ACAMS 9th Annual AML & Financial Crime Conference in Amsterdam. Although the Financial Action Task Force has revised its recommendations on how to fight money laundering...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
British officials and bankers have reached a breakthrough in recent days in their talks on how to better cooperate in financial crime cases, a top U.K. investigator said Thursday.
A proposal to hold British bankers more accountable for compliance failings could soon extend to senior executives of foreign banks, U.K. regulators said Monday.
Austria's central bank suspended its deputy governor following corruption allegations, a group of at least 1,173 shell companies in Russia is alleged to have conducted $24 billion in illegal transactions, and more, in the midweek roundup.
With an American anti-tax evasion law set to take effect and plans for another European Union directive to fight money laundering, French banks will soon have to know their clients better, according to Carolina Ceballos, a professor at the University of Strasbourg.
As the compliance expectations of European regulators grow, banks should proactively move to adopt future changes outlined in proposals for the EU's Fourth Money Laundering Directive, according to the former global head of compliance at ABN Amro.
The European Commission unveiled proposals Tuesday for a Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive that would require greater disclosures of beneficial ownership and increased scrutiny of domestic politicians, among other changes.
Europe's financial intelligence units are asking the European Commission for uniformity in their ability to suspend suspicious transactions under a forthcoming anti-money laundering directive, a Dutch official said Monday.
The European Union's commissioners asked lawmakers Wednesday to consider broadening the scope of Europe's anti-money laundering directive, lowering beneficial ownership thresholds and strengthening controls on accounts held for political figures.