Financial Services

“In every crisis, an opportunity:” the criminal’s motto, probably. Financial crime compliance consultant Shubham Jain discusses what banks can do to foil the efforts of financial criminals during these unprecedented times. COVID has shaken the entire world in almost every aspect. People are still adapting to “the new normal” – from being forced to remain indoors and hence, work from...

Factor’s Chris Magee illuminates a new EU regulation, discussing what organizations are impacted and what they can do to meet their compliance obligations. The Central Securities Depository Regulation (CSDR) is a new EU regulation primarily concerned with improving securities settlement and the regulation of central securities depositories. The regulation’s core themes will be recognizable to those familiar with the existing...

Remember the panic around Y2K? Jay Fitzhugh, Chief Regulatory Officer at Mitratech, discusses why we are facing down a similar issue with the concept of negative interest.   Negative interest has become quite the buzzword in financial circles, but what exactly is it? A negative interest environment occurs when the nominal interest rate drops below zero percent for a specific...

Sujata Dasgupta explores the emerging concept of perpetual, dynamic KYC and analyzes how AI-powered solutions can form the building blocks of a dynamic KYC platform. A strong know your customer (KYC) framework is the backbone of effective financial crimes compliance program in banks and other financial institutions (FIs). From the point a prospect approaches to be onboarded as a customer...

ForteBank CCO Timur Mussin continues a discussion on the real cost of noncompliance with a look at the various penalties – reputational, financial and otherwise – associated with regulatory violations. Read Part 1 here. High-Risk Products As part of fierce competition, organizations are improving their products and services, including through innovative solutions. At the same time, without considering the compliance...

Nutter McClennen & Fish’s Mark Jensen and Ian Roffman address the SEC’s recently issued rules for the use of derivatives. Here, they discuss the SEC’s key findings and policy decisions and emphasize the significance of the new rules to affected fund groups and fund investors. On November 2, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued rules governing the use...

Timur Mussin, CCO at ForteBank, discusses the importance of a strong ethics and compliance program and explores some of the chief reasons to develop a culture of compliance. Once upon a time, financial organizations functioned without a compliance control system; functions similar to parts of compliance were carried out by full-time lawyers, internal auditors or other employees, and that was...

Recent coverage of the FinCEN data leak has illuminated the need for an evolution in SAR filing. Hummingbird CEO Joe Robinson explains how and why the financial services industry needs to innovate now, through technology, to help solve the SAR problem. The #FinCENFiles coverage, though flawed and exaggerated, did highlight legitimate weaknesses in the U.S. system for stopping financial crime....

FinCEN recently released the factors it will use when deliberating an action against a financial institution for Bank Secrecy Act violations. FTI Consulting’s Jaco Sadie, Michael Buffardi and Stephanie Fauerbach explore how discrete issues could trigger multiple FinCEN enforcement factors. On August 18, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a statement identifying the factors it will consider when...

A modification has been proposed by FinCEN and the Federal Reserve board to lower the threshold for the requirement to collect, retain and transmit information on funds and transfers. As Brandi Reynolds explains, this could have major implications for the crypto sector. The “Travel Rule,” otherwise known as the funds transfer recordkeeping regulation, requires financial institutions, including non-bank financial institutions,...

The pandemic era has ushered in new challenges for financial institutions. Are current risk Identification and control assurance methods enough to deal with the challenges of a dynamic environment? Samiksha Sharma discusses how to address changing needs in an evolving risk landscape. The pandemic era has seen financial institutions activate their business continuity plans in the shortest possible time. The...

Guðmundur Kristjánsson, CEO of Lucinity, discusses the recent uptick in AML fines and what this may portend for banks and other financial institutions in the fight against financial crime. The number of fines for anti-money laundering (AML) failures during the first half of 2020 has already outstripped those for the entirety of 2019. It’s evident, then, that we’re sitting on the...