by Francesco Salerno

This article is the first of two parts written by me concerning governmental control of investments in strategic enterprises following the Covid-19 pandemic. The articles will be published on two consecutive days. The Covid-19 outbreak has been followed by a raft of measures to lessen its impact on the world of production. Indeed, the majority of countries have intervened in various branches of the law ‒ starting with contract, company and insol­ven­cy/bankruptcy rules ‒ with the stated intent of supporting the economy. Among the many other forms of intervention, changes have been made to the rules on the control of companies operating in strategic sectors. This is because companies often tumble in value in crisis situations, making it easier for them to be snapped up “cheaply”: hence the special attention paid to rules that give governments the power to control investments in strategic enterprises.  Continue reading…

ING announced today that Steven van Rijswijk, currently member of the Executive Board and chief risk officer of ING, will succeed Ralph Hamers as CEO and chairman of the Executive Board. The Supervisory Board has appointed Steven van Rijswijk effective 1 July 2020. As announced earlier, Ralph Hamers will leave ING to join UBS, where he will become CEO later in the year. Steven van Rijswijk was appointed to the Executive Board at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders in 2017. Steven joined ING in 1995 and held various positions in the Mergers & Acquisitions, Equity Capital Markets and Capital Structuring and Advisory teams. In 2012 he was appointed global head of Corporate Clients. He became global head of Client Coverage at ING Wholesale Banking in 2014, being responsible for relationship management, transaction services and corporate finance for corporate clients and financial institutions in over 40 countries. 
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today fined Commerzbank AG (London Branch) £37,805,400 for failing to put adequate anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls in place between October 2012 and September 2017. Commerzbank London was aware of these weaknesses and failed to take reasonable and effective steps to fix them despite the FCA raising specific concerns about them in 2012, 2015 and 2017. These weaknesses also persisted during a period when the FCA was publishing guidance on steps firms could take to reduce financial crime risk as well as taking enforcement action against a number of firms in relation to AML controls. Despite these clear warnings, the failures continued. Continue reading…

Financial policymakers and international standard setters recently met virtually with private sector executives to discuss international policy responses to COVID-19. Organised by the FSB’s Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation (SRC), in cooperation with Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the meeting brought together senior representatives from central banks, regulatory authorities and finance ministries as well as about 30 international banks, insurance firms, asset managers, market infrastructures and credit rating agencies. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently fined Lloyds Bank plc, Bank of Scotland plc and The Mortgage Business plc (“the banks”) £64,046,800 for failures in relation to their handling of mortgage customers in payment difficulties or arrears. The banks have estimated that they will have paid approximately £300 million in redress. The redress programme is nearly complete. Continue reading…

by Alex Movchan

We have recently had the pleasure of speaking with Olga Lukashenko who is an Audit Director at Reanda Netherlands. She is an incredibly dedicated finance professional with experience in accounting, auditing and financial management. She also has a proven track record in preparation of consolidated financial statements according to IFRS and GAAP, IFRS-reporting implementation in different accounting systems, as well as auditing and independent assessment of financial and non-financial data. Olga has an impressive international career with in depth knowledge of audit practices. This year is very unusual in terms of the Covid-19 related situation and many Chief Audit Executives struggle to execute the audit plans given travel restrictions, additional limitations of resources and shifting business priorities.  Continue reading…

We are all living in an extraordinary crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic. While the virus has affected every Member State, the budgetary capabilities of each state’s response to the crisis is not equivalent. Countries that have not fully recovered can have a negative impact on the economic growth of other Member States that have been able to escape the grasps of Covid-19 quicker. This is why cooperation and taking the same measures within the European Union is essential to guarantee that the single market, which is the bedrock of the European economy, does not collapse. Continue reading…

by Dina-Perla Portnaar

Regxsa, formerly known as AMLabc, empowers financial institutions in taking responsibility towards society and doing the right thing. The company launches the cloud based solution Alexis to bring back the human factor in the heart of the fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and related financial crimes. Regxsa supports financial institutions to meet local and global regulatory requirements. The company also aims at achieving and exceeding regulatory expectations and doing the right thing for society, through advisory services, training, placement and cloud based AML investigations. The company launched the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) investigation tool Alexis with top software development company Fortech in 2020. Continue reading…

Global Credit Data (GCD) recently published its 2020 report on Loss Given Default (LGD), which offers the latest numerical evidence of recoveries and losses incurred by banks from loans to large corporate borrowers. Global Credit Data is a non-profit association whose mission is to help banks better understand and model their credit risks through data pooling and benchmarking activities. In turn, the report is based on a clear and qualified set of data, underpinned by verified, high-quality information collected over 15 years from more than 60 global and regional banks. What’s more, this year’s edition represents the first complete account of the losses incurred during the global financial crisis of 2008. Continue reading…

by Massimo Balducci

It is time to start some evaluation of institutional responses to Covid-19 emergency. Two questions need to be answered in this first evaluation: (a) was the emergency rightly evaluated or was it under- or over- evaluated? And (b) was the medical response correct and was it possible to adjust it via a trial and error approach? Our hypothesis here is that a misleading institutional construction of reality and weaknesses in the management of information might have caused harm possibly greater than the very virus itself. Was the emergency under- or over-evaluated? Continue reading…