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Germany’s Crypto Custody Law Hits a Snag: Startups Can’t Get Bank Accounts

While more than 40 banks have reportedly expressed interest in Germany’s new crypto custody license, those firms may still have to put up with an anti-crypto sentiment among German banks. “If you try to open a bank account for a company that is in the space, you are working… Read More

Financial Criminals See Opportunities as Europe Reels from Virus

Criminals are increasingly trying to profit from the turmoil unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, posing a new challenge to bankers who are expected to continue guarding against illicit financial flows. Austria’s financial regulator on Thursday became the latest authority to warn of a jump in criminal activity as the drastic… Read More

EU regulators issue money laundering warning as criminals adapt to Covid-19

Europe’s top banking regulator is instructing financial institutions to pay closer attention to transactions linked to international trade, as the effects of Covid-19 prompt criminal groups to seek new ways of moving illicit funds and goods across borders. In a series of statements issued on Tuesday evening, the European Banking… Read More

2nd April 2020

Brussels bypass US sanctions to send medical aid to Iran

The alternative financial system set up by the European Union to bypass US sanctions on Iran has had its first success 15 months after it was proposed. Britain, France and Germany were able to export medical goods under the Instex system. The Foreign Office said: “These goods are now in… Read More

2nd April 2020

Hackers ‘Without Conscience’ Target Health-Care Providers

When hackers broke into computers at Hammersmith Medicines Research, a London-based company that carries out clinical trials for new medicines, it was a nightmare scenario for managing director Malcolm Boyce. The coronavirus crisis was just beginning to take hold in the U.K., and the company was in talks with… Read More

2nd April 2020

Standard Chartered Fined for Violating Russia Sanctions

U.K. authorities have fined Standard Chartered PLC for violating sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia following its annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014. The British bank must pay £20.47 million ($25.41 million) for violating the EU’s sanctions against Russia, the U.K. Treasury’s Office of… Read More

31st March 2020

U.S. renews sanctions waivers allowing Iran nonproliferation work

The United States has allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue their work at Iranian nuclear sites to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. Reuters earlier reported that the decision to renew waivers to sanctions that bar non-U.S. firms… Read More

31st March 2020

US Treasury Offers Little Wiggle Room on Foreign Bank Reporting

The Treasury Department doesn’t have any near-term plans to relax foreign banks’ obligation to report information about U.S. account holders, despite European Union leaders’ concern about hardships that result for some Americans. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was enacted to help the U.S. government enforce laws requiring U.S. citizens… Read More

27th March 2020

8 countries under unilateral sanctions ask UN chief for help

AP — Eight countries under unilateral sanctions, mainly from the United States and European Union, urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to request the immediate and complete lifting of those measures to enable the nations to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. In a joint letter obtained by The Associated Press,… Read More

26th March 2020

Malta’s Pilatus Bank was a ‘money transfer operation’

Pilatus Bank was a “money transfer operation” rather than an ordinary bank providing investment corporate and retail services to high net individuals, according to the bank’s administrator Lawrence Connell. The former US financial regulator reached his conclusion in his first six-month report covering up to August 2018, which was only… Read More

26th March 2020

Washington Pushes for More Sanctions on Russian Businessman

Eleven members of the U.S. House of Representatives have urged the European Union to impose sanctions on Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the latest attempt by lawmakers to combat alleged election meddling by the Kremlin in the U.S. and allied countries as well as possible disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. In… Read More

26th March 2020

Cum-Ex Trading: Challenges for Regulators

“This was a collective case of thievery from state coffers”—so declared presiding Judge Roland Zickler of the Bonn criminal court in December 2019 at the trial of Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, two British traders charged with aggravated tax evasion in Germany’s biggest post-war fraud prosecution. Although this was only… Read More

25th March 2020

From Miracle Cures to Fake Sprays, EU Joins Global Crackdown

The European Union’s law enforcement arm helped spearhead a global crackdown on gangsters peddling a “staggering amount” of fake products online linked to the Covid-19 virus, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Europol, which coordinates the fight against organized crime in the 27-nation EU, was part… Read More

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Crumbling Economies Must Tackle Tax Evasion To Meet Coronavirus Crisis, Experts Warn

Ecuador’s former president found guilty of corruption