The Supreme Court nears a ruling on the long-running Arab Bank case, FATF spares Afghanistan from its blacklist, and more, in this week's news roundup.
Rumors of its death are not exaggerated, but with its record penalty against Coutts & Co this week the Financial Services Authority appears ready to stay calm and carry on, only more so. The authority is likely to be issuing AML penalties right up until the time of its mandated demise in 2013.
One out of every three British banks is unwilling to turn away customers with an "unacceptable" level of risk for money laundering, the United Kingdom's chief financial regulator said in a report Wednesday.
Few small financial firms in the U.K. have adequate anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, including enhanced due diligence controls for high-risk clients, Britain's top financial regulator said Monday.
The U.K.'s chief financial regulator can prosecute criminal money laundering and other crimes despite the fact that the agency is not explicitly given powers to do so, a British court ruled Friday.
Estimates on how much money is laundered in the United Kingdom are, at best, mere speculation, says Jacqueline Harvey, a professor at Newcastle upon Tyne, England-based Newcastle Business School.
The U.K.'s chief financial services regulator fined a London-based insurance firm nearly $8 million for poor controls of overseas payments sent to the Middle East, eastern Europe and Asia.
A UK High Court Justice said Thursday that terror laws that allow for the freezing of assets of suspected terrorists are unlawful. The judgment stems from an appeal brought by five individuals whose assets were frozen under a United Nations measure targeting terrorists.
A convicted drug dealer was found guilty Monday of failing to disclose the existence of a bank account he held in Spain while serving an eight year sentence for drug trafficking and mortgage fraud offenses.
American lawyers headed across the Atlantic to handle international cases find the must quickly get up to speed a number of unfamiliar anti-money laundering program requirements.
Whether political figures like Augusto Pinochet require extra scrutiny from financial institutions that serve them long after they leave office may change in European Union nations under a 2004 AML directive expected to be implemented union-wide this year, according to analysts.
The new AML regulations authorize law enforcement agents to search a business if they have reasonable cause to believe the entity is subject to AML rules but hasn't registered with the government.
The new law extends anti-money laundering program requirements to industries including real estate companies, company formation agents and consumer credit businesses. They also set guidelines for determining beneficial ownership of various entities.