Asia-Pacific

As we inaugurate the next phase of international trade, the FATF is pushing trade-based money laundering to the top of the international community’s agenda, says Claus Christensen at Know Your Customer.

The guidelines are mandatory and require immediate implementation. Three months' grace is given for a new cap on investment advisor commissions.

PwC's South East Asia Consulting team discusses progress made to comply with BCBS 239 in Southeast Asian jurisdictions, providing an outlook and recommendations for the year ahead.

The SEC has asked the Colombo Stock Exchange to implement a broad programme to educate companies on the simplified processes and encourage them to list.

Suspected criminal proceeds mostly came from Australia, Germany, Singapore, the UK and the US. The top destinations of suspected illicit funds were Hong Kong, Singapore and the US.

Foreign banks are also instructed to defer repatriation of profits not already declared for 2019 and 2020 until their financial statements for 2020 are finalised and audited.

Last year’s financial crime landscape forced many FIs to rapidly adapt to evolving threats. In the year ahead, a continued focus on risk mitigation is prudent.

Each Hong Kong or Thai fund approved under the MRF scheme will have to appoint a firm in the other market to serve as its representative.

Drawing from landmark penalties in 2020, FINTRAIL’s Payal Patel and Sara Abbasi identify key lessons to help financial institutions guard against financial crime.

The approval comes ahead of an evaluation by the FATF, slated for February, as the Philippines seeks to avoid being gray-listed.