Accuity Insights Blog

Banks and non-banking financial institutions now need to ensure that they are on top of their compliance requirements – and able to demonstrate this to regulators. Asia’s diversity of geography, legal systems and cultures poses challenges for businesses operating intra-regionally and globally which are required to ensure their activities don’t enable money laundering and the many crimes it facilitates.

Versions of this article originally published in Global Banking & Finance Review and Trade Financing Matters. In the twelve months from January to December 2017, over 4,500 vessels in the container, bulker and tanker fleet completed 30,000 visits to OFAC sanctioned terminals (Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and the Crimea). Whilst not every vessel visit […]

At the latest Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting, 35 countries, the European Commission and the Gulf Co-operation Council urged the international body to improve understanding of money laundering risk related to cryptocurrencies. In light of this, Michael LaScola, Business Solution Specialist at Accuity, discusses some AML best practices for ICOs and why they should […]

In June, the fight against nuclear proliferation in rogue states took an interesting turn when China’s Bank of Dandong was blacklisted by the US for ‘facilitating financing’ for companies linked to North Korea’s nuclear programme. This signalled firmly that regulators aren’t only chasing organisations that breach sanctions – those financing the trade will be held equally responsible.

Amidst the angst and upheavals in 2016, one event for certain brought huge joy to certain residents of Chicago and its sports fans – the Cubs win the World Series! [1] For those outside Cubs Nation, the win ended a 108 year losing streak in baseball which is perhaps one of the longest on record […]

Pascal Aerens, Head of Innovation at Accuity, discusses the lucrative migrant smuggling business and its links to terrorist financing and money laundering. Originally published on GT News. A recent joint Europol/Interpol report on migrant smuggling networks stated that human trafficking was the second most profitable criminal activity after drug trafficking, with an average turnover of US$4.8bn. In […]

FinTech innovators like Earthport, Ripple and Currency Cloud are driving competition in the cross-border payments market and changing customer expectations for international payments. As banks, the traditional players in this market, determine how to handle this threat, SWIFT responded with the Global Payments Innovation Initiative (GPII) in 2015. This project provides a case study of […]

The Future of Compliance in Africa was the theme of a roundtable discussion jointly convened by Ernest Honya, President of the Association of Certified Compliance Professionals in Africa (ACCPA), and Hugh Jones, President and CEO of Accuity. 19 people attended from organisations which included commercial banks, GIABA, central banks, FIUs and universities to discuss four […]

Round Table Discussion on the Future of Compliance in Africa Part 2 of 4 – How the notion of ‘PEP’ in Africa differs from that in the West The Future of Compliance in Africa was the theme of a roundtable discussion jointly convened by Ernest Honya, President of the Association of Certified Compliance Professionals in […]

As trade finance progresses towards a digital delivery model, new opportunities to reduce fraud and fight financial crime are opening up. Henry Balani, Global Head of Strategic Affairs, Accuity, talks to FX-MM about reducing manual workflows and creating a safer trade finance environment. Download the full FX-MM article here: https://accuity.com/Global/Article%20Assets/201602-FXMM-Trade%20Compliance%20Digitizing%20the%20Flow.pdf

By Nina Kerkez, Senior Product Manager, KYC Solutions, Accuity Ten years on since the passing of the Third Money Laundering Directive, the EU 4th Money Laundering Directive (4MLD) was finally approved in May 2015 by the European Parliament. During those ten years, the financial industry has faced many challenges and changes which have put more […]

Combatting trade-based money laundering (TBML) gains momentum in Asia-Pacific.