FINMA published two updated sanctions notifications on 11 August 2026, one for Sudan and one for South Sudan, after the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER/WBF) amended Annex 2 of each ordinance. For a Swiss supervised institution, the FINMA notifications are an operational alert that the relevant Annex 2 lists changed. The…
On 7 August 2026 the FCA published a statement confirming that it is applying increased scrutiny to Annex 1 firms, including unregulated lenders, safe custody providers, money brokers and financial leasing companies registered with it for anti-money laundering purposes. Alongside the statement, the regulator said it had sent an information request to around 900 Annex…
Canada’s anti-money laundering regime draws one line for correspondent banking that leaves no room for a risk-based judgment call. Under subsection 9.4(2) of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, no person or entity may have a correspondent banking relationship with a shell bank. FINTRAC’s correspondent banking guidance explains the pre-entry, record-keeping…
On 26 June 2026 the Financial Action Task Force published a report on terrorist financing through social media, instant messaging applications and streaming platforms, and it lands with an uncomfortable number attached. Fewer than 30% of jurisdictions contributing to the FATF report said that this risk was covered in their national risk assessments. That national-level…
On 1 July 2026 the United Kingdom took over the two-year Presidency of the Financial Action Task Force and used its first day to launch the FATF 2026-2028 Roadmap on Combatting Fraud. The launch event, opened by the incoming FATF President Giles Thomson and supported by Executive Secretary Violaine Clerc, set fraud as one of…
On 17 July 2026 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1779, which amends Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 and adds six new designations to the EU list of persons and entities subject to an asset freeze over the situation in Ukraine. The measure entered into force on the…
On 15 July 2026 the Wolfsberg Group published its Guidance on the Provision of Banking Services to non-bank Payment Service Providers, and it lands on a problem most financial crime teams already know by feel: the bank holds the account, but it is several parties removed from the person actually sending the money. The new…
A custodian opened accounts for another FCA-authorised firm, checked the Financial Services Register on multiple occasions, saw each time that the firm lacked the permission it needed to hold those assets, and carried on anyway. Over two and a half years more than GBP 314 million flowed through those accounts while transaction-monitoring alerts sat unresolved….
When a supervisor publishes its prioritised risks for the year, it is telling you where its inspectors will look first. The FI 2026 AML priorities are exactly that. Finansinspektionen (FI), the Swedish financial supervisory authority, set them out on 18 June 2026 in its report on prioritised risks related to money laundering, terrorism financing and…
A speech is not a rule. A conference address does not itself create a filing requirement. So when the Financial Conduct Authority gives a financial crime speech, the temptation in a reporting team is to skim the headline cases and move on. That is the wrong instinct. The June 2026 FCA financial crime speech tells…