It recently emerged that online lender Prosper made a $28,500 collateral-free loan to Syed Rizwan Farook in mid-November, just a few weeks before he and his wife massacred guests at an office holiday party in San Bernardino, with Federal Officials…
Halting the Torrent of Stolen Money Finding a Safe Haven in the UK
In a report titled “Don’t Look, Won’t Find” released on 23rd November, Transparency International UK found the country’s AML supervision to be “fragmented”, “inadequate” and riddled with a “lack of transparency”, allowing “billions” of pounds in corrupt funds to flow…
The Inclusion of Financial crime as an FCA major risk factor
On the 24th of March 2015 the FCA released their business plan for the year. A notable aspect of the plan was financial crime replacing house price growth as a top risk consideration. Additionally, the FCA placed a special focus…
4 things we can learn from PayPal’s sanction violations
On the 25th of March 2015 PayPal agreed a $7.7m (£5.1m) settlement with U.S officials due to a breach of OFAC sanction regulation. For several years, up until April 2013, PayPal had been allowing users of their service to channel…
Why does ultimate beneficial ownership matter?
The joint-stock company is a social innovation that made possible global capitalism today. The array of corporate vehicles that it has spawned – limited liability corporations, trusts, limited companies and other legal structures – make possible the investment of capital and the…
Cryptocurrency, Financial Crime and Regulation
The recent HM Treasury publication, “Digital Currencies: response to the call for information”, reported that 80% of respondents believe digital currency requires a form of regulation. In addition, due to the anonymous nature of digital currency, participants acknowledged that money…
Effective Methods of Counter-Terrorist Financing
In a 9,000 word PhD chapter length article in the New Yorker, Mattathias Schwartz raises some interesting points.
Why are fintech companies unable to get bank accounts in the U.K.?
Underlying many financial technology companies’ capabilities are access to basic clearing accounts. If you want to lend money, you need to have somewhere to store it. If you want to process payments, you need to have a bank account through…
Fincen: Sanity Required Over Wholesale Termination of MSB Accounts
Fincen yesterday issued a statement regarding the extent to which banks should terminate the accounts of MSB’s. The statement declared: MSBs play an important role in a transparent financial system, particularly because they often provide financial services to people less…
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