UWOs raise the stakes for banks on anti-money laundering
The UK has a new weapon at its disposal in the battle against money laundering – and it is not afraid to use it. Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) potentially enable the UK authorities to seize the assets of those
The FinCrime Files – Q&A with Tom Christopherson, Art Law Consultant
In our continuing series of the FinCrime Files, we caught up with Tom Christopherson, Art Law Consultant at Bonhams and Constantine Cannon LLP and former European General Counsel at Sotheby’s. 2020 saw the fifth EU Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) come into
Avoiding the next Wirecard scandal
Hindsight packs a powerful punch. Looking back at the Wirecard scandal, it seems remarkable that regulators, investors, suppliers and other stakeholders did not see the downfall of the German payment processing company coming. The Financial Times began investigating the
Intelligent data for correspondent banking and payments AML
AML is hard at the best of times. When you are facilitating transactions on behalf of third-parties, it’s even harder. With no KYC context to draw on, and often poor-quality input data, numbers of investigations can overwhelm the best
How a European Corporate Bank achieved perpetual KYC
Challenge We’ve been working with a customer who year-on-year were struggling to get through their periodic review cycles. Whether done internally or through an outsourced partner, the KYC refresh exercise was putting a significant burden on the organisation. The process practically
Onboarding commercial banking customers: automate to accelerate
It’s a well known fact that, in banking, opening a new commercial account is not a fast or simple task. In fact, it’s a notoriously difficult and sometimes painful process which is dotted with friction points for the customer
Compliance & conservation – joining forces to stop wildlife trafficking
Before 2020, illegal wildlife trafficking (IWT) was a relatively low priority area for law enforcement and financial crime task forces. Like the rest of the public, AML professionals too had bigger priorities, like organized crime, narcotics, and human trafficking,
The risk of DPRK labour in your supply chain
In its landmark report “Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour” (2014), the International Labour Organization (ILO) outlined three areas of exploitation from human trafficking, the world’s 3rd largest criminal activity (by revenue) generating an estimated USD$150 billion
The onboarding conundrum – a poor experience for business customers and banks
The onboarding process for opening corporate accounts at banks is littered with friction points. But it’s not just the customers who are suffering, it’s also the banks themselves. It is evident just how difficult the onboarding process is for banks:
Cattle laundering poses problems for supply chain due diligence
For finding niches to exploit, financial criminals are experts. Much attention can be drawn to the use of small businesses as fronts, including barber shops or car washes as popularised by television serials, or indeed through larger institutions such