Summary: Cryptocurrency or Convertible Virtual Currencies (CVCs) are increasingly used as a part of financial crimes like money laundering and terrorism financing as they provide greater anonymity, unrivaled privacy, and security unmatched by traditional banking systems. In this blog, you will learn how criminals leverage cryptocurrency for money laundering activities and the FinCEN recommendations to monitor cryptocurrency transactions for the financial services industry and meet global AML/CFT regulatory requirements. While the use of cryptocurrency is accelerating exponentially, the overal ..read more

Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) is a process to ensure your bank or financial institution is meeting the policies, standards, and regulations laid by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States Treasury Department. Meeting financial crime compliance is a legal requirement for banks and financial institutions to combat the various financial crime risks and activities. It helps banks and financial institutions detect, prevent and report illegal financial activities. The blog discusses the financial crime risks in banking and financial institutions, the cost of financ ..read more

Basel Norms or Basel Accords are the international banking regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – BCBS. The Norms are an effort to coordinate banking regulations across the globe, to strengthen the international banking system. The Basel Committee has issued four sets of regulations known as: Basel – I First accord was issued in 1988. This accord aimed to tackle credit risk. With this accord, BCBS established a bank asset classification and lowered many risk profiles, which boosted investments. This paved the way for the best practices and regulations in the banki ..read more

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a new alert focused on human smuggling and trafficking across the United States’ southwestern border. This alert comprised guidance on relevant red flags, typologies, and SAR filing tips for financial institutions to help them detect and report suspicious transactions suggestive of human smuggling. This blog shares key takeaways and red flags, providing a quick summary of the FinCEN alert. FinCEN Alert on Human Smuggling The FinCEN alert on human smuggling is focused on the Southwest Border of the United States. The following are the ..read more

Financial crime risk management or FCRM refers to the process of protecting an organization’s finances from criminal or fraudulent activity. Managing financial crime risks involves looking for suspicious activity and evaluating and developing the institution’s processes to minimize the risks of financial malfeasance. This blog covers the main aspects of the prevalence of financial crimes, regulations, ways to manage the risks, and more. Financial Crimes: The Ever-Evolving Domain A recent survey conducted by PwC reported a total loss of US$42B, including a loss of reputation and market share ..read more

Adopting a “risk-based approach” or RBA is crucial for financial institutions to meet compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) maintains specific guidance for a risk-based approach in the banking sector, which states that “The risk-based approach (RBA) is central to the effective implementation of the revised FATF International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation.” This latest guidance updates the earlier endorsements for RBA per the latest FATF recommendations amended in Mar 2022. FATF ..read more

Financial crimes have been a growing problem for banks and other financial institutions. Offenses like money laundering have drawn increased regulatory attention over the years. As a result, due diligence efforts like KYC processes and tracking and reporting suspicious transactions have become critical to combating financial crimes and meeting compliance. The high costs of meeting compliance with BSA/AML regulations is a critical challenge for banks. A study by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) informs that financial institutions spend between 0.4% and 2.4% of thei ..read more

The onset of the pandemic saw a humongous increase in the number of financial crimes all around the world. According to PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022, 46% of the organizations admitted to experiencing fraud or other financial crimes in the past two years. In the year 2019, banks had to pay $10 billion in fines for violating anti-money laundering terms. This amount was doubled when compared to $4.27 billion in 2018, which indicates that managing financial frauds has become extremely crucial. The Rise of Money Laundering in Financial Sectors Over the years, money launde ..read more