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.
Financial services firms have been leading the charge in the development of artificial intelligence systems to improve service, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and drive through efficiencies. Until now, AI systems have been largely developed in a legal and regulatory vacuum but the European AI Act, which will impact many UK firms in the same way as GDPR did, is set to change all that. New Link Consulting summarises here the key provisions of the Act and offers practical advice regarding what firms should be doing now to get ahead of the game.
New Link Consulting is please to announce that it is now registered with the Hellios Financial Services Qualification System (FSQS), a single standard for managing the increasing complexity of third-party information needed to demonstrate compliance to regulators, policies and governance controls.
Peter Brooke tackles the growing threat of money laundering in real estate, highlighting the targeted risk on real estate agencies.
Further to the introduction of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) in 2012 and subsequent revisions in 2015 and 2017, the REFIT program (Regulatory Fitness and Performance Program) was instigated. The purpose of the REFIT for Trade Reporting, which commenced in 2019, has been to review the issues identified in the years since reporting obligations were introduced and to use these findings to enhance the accuracy of Trade Reporting, through improved data quality and industry standardisation.
In this article we will try to unravel the key developments and assess their potential impacts on banks and financial institutions. We believe this is more than a storm in a teacup and firms will need to follow developments closely over the coming months, as well as take a long hard look at their current policies and procedures – and previous debanking decisions. It is important to note that this is not just about account closures: firms need to also take a close look at how on-boarding decisions are made.
On 28 June 2023, the European Commission published a proposed legislative package that seeks to modernise and harmonise the existing regulatory framework for electronic payments throughout the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), currently regulated by the Second Payment Service Directive (PSD2).
The current media interest in the banking arrangements of Nigel Farage has highlighted some of the challenges faced by financial institutions when deciding which new customers to take on and which customers to keep.
Navigating the tricky waters of migrating clients from one platform to another is a difficult yet frequent undertaking in Financial Services.
“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.” …
