The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) launched a review of its monetary policy strategy. The monetary policy strategy was adopted in 1998 and some of its elements were clarified in 2003. Since 2003 the euro area and the world economy have been undergoing profound structural changes. Declining trend growth, on the back of slowing productivity and an ageing population, as well as the legacy of the financial crisis, have driven interest rates down, reducing the scope for the ECB and other central banks to ease monetary policy by conventional instruments in the face of adverse cyclical developments.

Continue reading…

Environment Agency launches campaign (red. in UK) to highlight the impact flood damage has on mental health, advising people on the importance of signing up to flood alerts. Experiencing damage caused by extreme weather such as storms or flooding can increase the chance of facing mental health problems such as stress and depression by 50% while a quarter of people who have been flooded still live with these issues at least two years after the event. This is according to research highlighted by the Environment Agency this Flood Action Week as it urges people to be better prepared for the potentially devastating impacts of flooding.

Continue reading…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against Guy S. Griffithe and Robert W. Russell, and three companies they controlled, for an alleged scheme that defrauded investors who thought they were purchasing interests in a Washington-licensed recreational cannabis company out of approximately $4.85 million. The SEC’s complaint alleges that between August 2015 and December 2017, Griffithe, of California, used Renewable Technologies Solution, Inc., an entity he controlled, to sell investors purported ownership interests in SMRB LLC, a Washington company owned by Russell that held a license to grow marijuana under the state’s recreational cannabis laws.

Continue reading…

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined DSG Retail Limited (DSG) £500,000 after a ‘point of sale’ computer system was compromised as a result of a cyber-attack, affecting at least 14 million people. An ICO investigation found that an attacker installed malware on 5,390 tills at DSG’s Currys PC World and Dixons Travel stores between July 2017 and April 2018, collecting personal data during the nine month period before the attack was detected.

Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published the Global Monitoring Report on Non-Bank Financial Intermediation 2019. The report presents the results of the FSB’s annual monitoring exercise to assess global trends and risks from non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI). The annual monitoring exercise is an important part of the FSB’s policy framework to enhance the resilience of NBFI. It covers data up to end-2018 from 29 jurisdictions, which together represent over 80% of global GDP.

Continue reading…

The phone call between the president of the European Council Charles Michel and president Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation took place on Thursday January 16, 2020 ahead of the upcoming Libya Conference, which is to be held in Berlin on January 19. During the call, president Michel addressed the situation in Libya and in the wider Middle East.

Continue reading…

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on how institutions should calculate the own funds requirements for market risk for their non-trading book positions that are subject to foreign-exchange risk or commodity risk under the FRTB standardised and internal model approaches. The consultation runs until 10 April 2020.

Continue reading…

by Ahsan Habib

It seems to be a reasonable enough assumption that a dedicated money launderer would be able to utilise crowdfunding to wash their dirty money.The features facilitating the exploitation of crowdfunding for money laundering include the lack of legal regulations imposing a direct obligation to identify clients of crowdfunding platforms, as well as the absence of supervision of their activities. This can generate such threats as the mingling of income from legal and illegal sources, transferring criminal proceeds to persons conducting crowdfunding, and legitimating assets through the organisation of crowdfunding campaigns.
Continue reading…

In his keynote speech at the SUERF/DNB conferende, Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, says, among other things, the following: For decades, Europe’s leading financial centre has been the City of London and, in some notable areas, the EU’s financial ecosystem has relied heavily on services provided by UK-based banks and market infrastructures. Derivatives clearing – a critical segment of financial markets – is a striking example. As of December 2019, almost 90% of all over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives positions taken by euro area institutions were cleared at UK global clearing houses.

Continue reading…