by Elina Karpacheva

The Bulgarian FinTech community met to discuss compliance and financial crime for the first time in Sofia. The Spotlight event, organized by Eleven Ventures and the European Compliance Center was truly a success – an evening full of valuable insights and discussions between entrepreneurs and AML/financial crime specialists. The event showed that the thriving innovative ecosystem seriously takes into account the AML/financial crime risks and is committed to building effective internal systems for detection, prevention and response. The event coincided with the launch of the First Bulgarian FinTech report. Bulgaria is the fastest growing Fintech destination in the CEE region according to the newest CEE Fintech Atlas by the Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published multi-firm review findings indicating the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive’s (MiFID II) research unbundling rules have improved asset managers’ accountability over costs, saving millions for investors. A key principle of the MiFID II unbundling reforms is to ensure that portfolio managers act as good agents in the best interests of their clients and that their investment decisions are not unduly influenced by third parties.

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Christopher Woodhead’s decade and a half on the run has ended, following an enforcement hearing at Leeds Magistrates’ Court. In 2004, Woodhead was sentenced to 6 years and 4 months in prison, following a joint prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office and West Yorkshire Police. Today he was handed down an additional 3 years default sentence in relation to the unpaid confiscation order of £428,000. With interest, the amount now owing is £900,000.

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The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) engages on global insurance regulatory and supervisory issues chiefly through its participation in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) alongside the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office, state insurance regulators, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The U.S. members of the IAIS are informally known as “Team USA.” The mission of the IAIS is to promote effective supervision of internationally active insurance companies. It is important to note that none of the standards set by the IAIS have binding effect on the United States. We believe that it is in our national interest to engage in the international insurance standards-development process so that it produces standards that protect the U.S. market and U.S. consumers when foreign insurers operate here and are appropriate for U.S. companies operating abroad.

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ECB’s President Mario Draghi and Vice President Luis de Guindos announced that: “Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses we have conducted a thorough assessment of the economic and inflation outlook, also taking into account the latest staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area. As a result, the Governing Council took five decisions in pursuit of its price stability objective.”

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Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s leading wealth managers, has launched it’s ‘MyBrewin app’. This new app is an extension of the current MyBrewin online client portal. The client app has been made available both on the iPhone and Apple Watch and Android-based devices, and will provide Brewin Dolphin clients with instant access to current information about their portfolios, asset allocation and performance.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) will undertake remedial efforts and pay $20 million in penalties to settle charges that it failed to implement policies to manage certain risks as required by U.S. laws and SEC and CFTC rules. According to the SEC’s and CFTC’s respective orders, Chicago-based OCC failed to establish and enforce policies and procedures involving financial risk management, operational requirements, and information-systems security. The SEC’s order also found that OCC changed policies on core risk management issues without obtaining required SEC approval.

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EU countries lost €137 billion in Value-Added Tax (VAT) revenues in 2017 according to a study released by the European Commission. The so-called ‘VAT Gap’ – or the overall difference between the expected VAT revenue and the amount actually collected – has reduced somewhat compared to previous years but remains very high. This substantial VAT Gap again highlights the need for comprehensive reform of the EU VAT rules, as proposed in 2017 by the Commission, and increased cooperation between Member States to clamp down on VAT fraud and to make the rules work for legitimate businesses and traders. The VAT Gap measures the effectiveness of VAT enforcement and compliance measures in each Member State, as it provides an estimate of revenue loss due to fraud and evasion, tax avoidance, bankruptcies, financial insolvencies as well as miscalculations. Continue reading…

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has imposed monetary penalties amounting to Rs 805 million on 10 banks in August 2019 for noncompliance of regulatory requirements. SBP has disclosed significant enforcement actions taken against banks in the last month aimed to bring more transparency and strengthen the market discipline. According to details issued by State Bank, cumulatively Rs 805.1 million monetary fines were imposed on ten banks during August 2019 for violating laws, rules, regulations, guidelines or directives.

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Mr Baldwin was sentenced in his absence after he absconded from justice during his trial for money laundering in July 2017. The sentence also includes punishment for separate contempts of court that he admitted in November 2015 for breaching a Restraint Order made in June 2011. The Restraint Order prevented Mr Baldwin from in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of his assets within or outside of England & Wales.

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