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…

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…

by Michel Klompmaker

Last week, the number of registered unemployed (those claiming benefits) in the USA rose to 39 million. The chairman of the FED expects a further increase in the coming month. Meanwhile, last Sunday, May 24, 2020, the New York Times opens with a more than serious report covering the entire front page. Certainly not fake news. The 6 column heading reads “US DEATHS NEAR 100,000, AN INCALCULABLE LOSS”. The full front page is filled with about a thousand names with short descriptions of deaths from Covid-19 based on obituaries. Only 1 percent of the total. And in the meantime, the president of this country, as a kind of “monkey on the rock”, quietly continues to deal unfairly with mainly female journalists from serious media.. We repeat it again, political risks will be one of the biggest risk factors in the coming years. Continue reading…

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a global public health emergency with severe human and economic consequences. Insurance is an essential service at this time of distress, providing protection against the heightened uncertainties created by the pandemic. For insurers to play this role, and to contribute to economic recovery, the stability of the sector is vital. To this end, the IAIS has been closely monitoring developments and actively coordinating with other standard-setting bodies and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to assess the impact of Covid-19 on the global insurance sector. The IAIS is also committed to supporting the FSB’s recently published principles for ensuring international cooperation and coordination of responses to Covid-19. Moreover, the IAIS is facilitating the sharing of information and discussion among its broad membership on supervisory responses to the impact of Covid-19. Continue reading…

by Dina-Perla Portnaar

Apparently, in 2012 there was limited information available on money laundering schemes and there were not a lot of cases on the internet. To help the community, Abhishek Dwivedi started the portal and gathered information such as news, case studies and fines related to money laundering and the financing of terrorism across the world. As a company, the primary activity has been in consultancy services, helping banks in advising patterns and behaviors on how their products and services can be abused for money laundering and what kind of controls they should put in place. Though AMLabc as a portal started back in 2012, Regxsa as a rebranding of AMLabc occurred in 2020. We have had the opportunity to talk to CEO of Regxsa and to ask him some specific questions related to anti money laundering. Continue reading…