On 3 June 2015 the New York financial services regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services (‘NYDFS’), announced the release of the final form of its “BitLicense” which was described as “the first comprehensive framework for regulating digital currency firms”. The press-release accompanying the announcement noted that the BitLicense “contains… Read More

After it was announced that five major banks had agreed to plead guilty to felony charges in the US, commentators have once again called for top executives to be held personally accountable. On 20 May 2015 the Department of Justice announced that Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC,… Read More

On 25 May 2015 the Irish Times published the following article by Stephen Platt, author of Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime:  Another week, another series of record banking penalties. JP Morgan, Barclays, RBS, Citigroup and UBS have been fined a total of $5.7… Read More

At the recent 47th Plenary of MONEYVAL it was decided that the overall progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina in addressing its AML/CFT deficiencies under the Compliance Enhancing Procedures remained insufficient. MONEYVAL considered that although amendments to the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Law had been made, other necessary amendments to its Criminal… Read More

On 25 February 2015 Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services for the State of New York, gave a fascinating speech on financial regulation at Columbia Law School. Of interest to AML professionals, the speech, entitled “Financial Federalism: The Catalytic Role of State Regulators in a Post-Financial Crisis World”, dealt with:… Read More