In this news update Comsure wishes to offer some updates on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing news, both in the UK and internationally, covering the period from October 2017 to February 2018.   This period had seen a lot of activity.   The EU legislative bodies reached a political agreement on the Fifth Money Laundering […]

The UK has already made much progress. The National Risk Assessment Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment was published in October 2015, followed by a National AML Action Plan this year. The Persons of Significant Control Register (effectively a beneficial ownership register) became publicly accessible in June. In September 2016, the UK Government launched […]

The Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive (4MLD), which came into force on June 26, 2015 (implementation by June 26, 2017) is designed to bring a more robust risk-based approach to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing across all Member States. The key 4MLD changes that all firms should be mindful of to ensure […]

Canada has a strong anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime which achieves good results in some areas but requires further improvements to be fully effective. The International Monetary Fund conducted a detailed assessment of Canada’s AML/CFT framework, and the resulting report was adopted by the FATF as Canada’s 4th mutual evaluation […]

The EU’s executive body has promised new legislation in the Spring to make sure the exchanges and users of virtual currency platforms such as Bitcoin are identifiable and traceable. The reason? Terrorism. The move was announced as part of a raft of measures to make it harder for terrorists and their backers to move around […]

The following provides an overview of the ways Islamic names encountered in AML/KYC contexts can differ from familiar Anglo/European names. This article will emphasize those aspects that cause complications both for automated processing (searching and matching) and for human interpretations. Islamic vs. Arabic First, it’s important to remember that Islamic is not the same as […]

A 2014 (October) guide produced by the International Bar Association (IBA) in conjunction with the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) aims to give lawyers around the world new clarity on the issues around and practical guidance in detecting and preventing money laundering. The guide – […]

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and its counterpart in China signed a memorandum of understanding Friday for expanded U.S.- China collaboration to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. FinCEN director Jennifer Shasky Calvery and the chief of the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center, Luo Yang, signed the agreement. Calvery said. […]