Senior management and boards are increasingly acknowledging the threat of financial crime as a critical risk to their business that must be addressed. This has been exacerbated in the last 12 months through the impact of the pandemic as well as rising domestic and international tensions. Norton Rose Fulbright’s financial crime compliance specialists, located in … Continue Reading
On 16 December 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a paper providing entities with additional information on COVID-19 related money laundering and terrorist financing risks. The paper covers both changes in predicate offences and changes in money laundering and terrorist financing activity. It provides selected case studies, displaying criminal activity that has occurred … Continue Reading
The Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (FSTB) issued a consultation paper on 3 November 2020 seeking comments on its proposal (the New Regs) to amend Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering legislation to bring exchanges that offer virtual assets (VAs) that are not securities within the regulatory remit of Hong Kong’s securities regulator, the Securities and Futures … Continue Reading
On 21 to 23 October 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held its final quarterly plenary of 2020 as a virtual event. The discussions over three days mostly focussed on Strategic Initiatives reacting to the Covid-19 pandemic and progress made on country specific processes. The FATF also provided an update on their strategic focus … Continue Reading
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has launched a three-month consultation on proposals to amend its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) guidelines for licensed corporations (LCs) and associated entities (AEs).[1] The proposed amendments aim to align the AML/CTF guidelines with the Guidance for a Risk-based Approach for the Securities Sector (RBA Guidance) issued … Continue Reading
On 14 September 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report, Virtual Assets – Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. The report is based on more than 100 case studies and is designed to help national authorities and financial institutions identify potential money laundering and terrorist financing activity involving virtual … Continue Reading
In September 2020, SWIFT (a global member-owned cooperative and provider of secure financial messaging services) published a report to support market participants in understanding the money laundering techniques which underpin large-scale cyber-attacks. The report sets out the end-to-end journey commonly used by criminals to launder funds obtained through illicit cyber-crime related activities, and focusses on … Continue Reading
On 12 August 2020, the Wolfsberg Group published its statement on developing an effective anti-money laundering (AML) / counter-terrorism financing (CTF) programme. In December 2019, the Wolfsberg Group published a statement on effectiveness which encourages jurisdictions to adopt the Financial Action Task Force’s focus on effective outcomes. As part of that statement, the Wolfsberg Group … Continue Reading
On 7 August 2020, the Wolfsberg Group, published new guidance targeted at private banking and wealth management divisions within financial institutions (FIs) to support the undertaking of source of wealth (SoW) and source of funds (SoF) checks. Based on the principles of the application of a risk-based approach (RBA), different customers will require a different … Continue Reading
On 7 July 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors regarding stablecoins. The June 2019 revisions to the FATF Standards place anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) requirements on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The FATF report finds that stablecoins share … Continue Reading
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published a circular setting out key observations and good practices relating to anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) control measures applicable to remote customer on-boarding initiatives. The feedback is based on recent thematic reviews, engagement with authorized institutions (AIs) and technology firms in the Fintech Supervisory … Continue Reading
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published guidance to assist authorized institutions (AIs) and stored value facility (SVF) licensees with their anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) risk management practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The HKMA has reiterated in the circulars that it does not expect a “zero failure” outcome from AIs and … Continue Reading
An increasingly globalised business environment, together with technological innovation, political uncertainty and ongoing regulatory change, present a number of challenges for financial institutions when it comes to protecting themselves against financial crime. Our global anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance survey will explore how financial institutions across the globe are managing their compliance programs in light of the … Continue Reading
On 4 September 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published their mutual evaluation report (the Report) on the level of compliance with the FATF recommendations and the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) system. Overall, the Report is positive and concludes that Hong Kong has generally sound and effective … Continue Reading
On 25 August 2017, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Police (HKP) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise and strengthen the parties’ co-operation in combating financial crime. The MoU, which became effective on 25 August 2017, covers a variety of matters, including referral of cases, joint investigations, exchange and … Continue Reading
On 28 June 2017, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council considered the new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) (Amendment) Bill 2017 (the Bill). Subject to the Bill being passed by the Legislative Council, the Government proposes to implement the amendments on 1 March 2018. The Bill proposes to introduce statutory customer due diligence (CDD) and … Continue Reading
The People’s Bank of China has issued amended measures on the reporting of large-sum and suspicious transactions. The amended measures will take effect on 1 July 2017. The amended measures substantially revise the existing regime and impose greater obligations on financial institutions in the reporting of large-sum and suspicious transactions. Under the amended measures, financial … Continue Reading
On 27 September 2016, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued its Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of Singapore Anti-money laundering (AML) / Countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) measures, following a review which was conducted between 17 November 2015 and 3 December 2015. FATF’s last Mutual Evaluation for Singapore was conducted in 2008, with a … Continue Reading
In the wake of the order to close BSI Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced that it will, from 1 August 2016, establish dedicated departments to combat money laundering and strengthen enforcement respectively. MAS has indicated its resolve to ensure that Singapore retains its reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre, … Continue Reading
MAS Takes Action against BSI Bank in Singapore On 24 May 2016, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) gave BSI Bank Limited (BSI Bank) notice that the MAS will: withdraw BSI Bank’s status as a merchant bank for serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight and gross misconduct of bank staff. impose S$13.3 … Continue Reading
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently renewed its emphasis on money laundering risks in Trade Finance in its latest Guidance Paper on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Controls (AML/CFT) in Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking in October 2015. For the purposes of risk assessment relating to trade finance business, MAS emphasised … Continue Reading
The MAS (Amendment) Act has come into force on 26 June 2015, implementing provisions discussed in our previous update. The key aspects of the new provisions are as follows: Anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) Requirements Requirements to conduct customer due diligence and maintain records on transactions and information have been expressly … Continue Reading
A Bill providing for amendments to the MAS Act recently underwent its first reading in Parliament and broadly covered the following purposes: Customer due diligence and record keeping requirements – the duties to perform customer due diligence measures for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) purposes and the obligation to keep records … Continue Reading
Our Hong Kong office has released a Learning & Development calendar for March – September 2015. Clients are invited to join a range of legal and personal development and business skills sessions. We are holding a session in June on Corporate governance in financial institutions.… Continue Reading
