This week, Standard Chartered Bank signed a new deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay more than $1 billion in fines and forfeitures. This latest scandal evolved because, while the bank negotiated its earlier admission of guilt for intentionally violating sanctions against Iran and other nations, two of its officers on the SALES SIDE OF […]

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 […]

As the need for reliable due diligence checking continues to grow in a world with increasingly strict anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations, some national governments have risen to the challenge. In India, where its Aadhaar project has provided secure biometric identification to most of the country’s citizens, the Indian finance ministry […]

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued a circular reminding intermediaries of the importance of appropriate account opening procedures for investors in and outside Hong Kong in order to fully comply with the know your client (KYC) and account opening procedures requirements under The Code of Conduct for Persons Licensed by or […]

The tightening of international banking standards is making it difficult for low-income people in the global south to get access to banking service When people in developing countries don’t have access to a bank account, physical proximity to a bank is usually the first challenge that springs to mind, but sometimes the reason a person […]

Fraudsters are by their very nature tricky customers. Lenders need to know who they are instructing on loan transactions to ensure they do not become an innocent party without any redress where a fraud is committed on them. This was the outcome in UCB Home Loans Corporation Ltd v Soni and Soni & Co (A […]