FCA urges financial firms to improve treatment of politically exposed persons

Wes Cude Anti-Financial Crime, Regulation

On July 18th, after completing a multi-firm review, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released its assessment of how well firms are following its current guidance on the treatment of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and their Relatives and Close Associates (RCAs) for anti-money laundering purposes. The following post provides a summary of how well firms have performed.

Compliance Risk Assessments

Wes Cude Anti-Financial Crime

Understanding where compliance risks are lurking in your business, and whether or not the controls in the first and second lines of defence are effectively mitigating those risks is of critical importance to Compliance Heads and Senior Management.

Sanctions and KYC following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

New Link Editor Anti-Financial Crime

“Businesses need to take basic steps to investigate their own potential links to sanctioned Russian businesses and individuals, or else face the potential for what should be an avoidable worst-case scenario…You are supposed to be screening absolutely everyone you do business with — suppliers, customers and partners. This is a strict liability, and it doesn’t matter if you didn’t know.”  …

The FinCEN Files – Our Perspective

New Link Editor Anti-Financial Crime

Over 2,100 Suspicious Activity Reports (‘SARs’) that were filed with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) between 2011 and 2017, have been leaked to BuzzFeed News and investigated by a team of reporters from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (‘ICIJ’). There has been no question regarding the authenticity of the documents. The ICIJ is drip-feeding the results …

Transforming CLM Operations

New Link Editor Anti-Financial Crime

Whilst most of the Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) commentary out there touts technology, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence as the answer to all of your CLM and client on-boarding challenges, New Link Consulting takes the view that many firms should be spending their time fixing some of the more fundamental challenges of CLM before investing in the newest, shiny thing. …