Anti money laundering nz lawyers

PARIS (Reuters) – Facebook’s planned global ‘Libra’ cryptocurrency must respect anti-money laundering regulations and it must seek banking licences if it offers banking services, France’s central bank chief said in a magazine interview. Facebook Inc announced plans last week to introduce a new global cryptocurrency called Libra as part of an effort to expand into digital payments. Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said that while there was room to improve cross-border money transfers, Libra had to follow anti-money laundering rules. “The risks are increased by the anonymity that Libra users would have,” Villeroy said in an interview with French weekly magazine L’Obs, adding that Libra would have to ensure transactions and users’ data were fully secure. “If the project seeks to go beyond payments to offering banking services like deposits, it will then have to be regulated like a bank with a banking licence in … [Read more...] about Facebook’s Libra must obey anti-money laundering rules

By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's plans to step up its fight against money laundering in the banking sector were a "good start" but more, such as boosting staff, needs to be done over time, the incoming head of the bloc's banking watchdog said on Tuesday. The authorities uncovered a money-laundering scandal at Denmark's Danske Bank involving billions of euros of suspicious flows through its Estonian branch. U.S. authorities were first to uncover problems at Latvia's ABLV bank and Pilatus Bank in Malta. Following the scandals, the bloc has proposed 12 more staff for the European Banking Authority (EBA) to coordinate efforts among national financial supervisors to crack down on money laundering. Jose Manuel Campa, global head of regulatory affairs at Spain's Santander bank and nominated by EBA's board to become its new chair, told EU lawmakers that ensuring banks' compliance with anti-money laundering rules was a big challenge for the bloc. Compliance would only be as … [Read more...] about Incoming EU watchdog chief questions anti-money laundering plans

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Friday that it had fined the Hong Kong branch of JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> HK$12.5 million ($1.60 million) and reprimanded it for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules.The regulator said that the firm failed to "establish and maintain effective procedures" for identifying and handling wire transfers and for complying with rules on customer due diligence and "continuous monitoring" of business relationships.gi The HKMA also ordered the Hong Kong unit of the U.S. bank to have an independent external adviser prepare a report into whether its remedial measures were sufficient to address the "contraventions and other deficiencies" it had identified.The action follows an investigation by the HKMA which found that between April 2012 and February 2014 JPMorgan Hong Kong contravened six provisions of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules, said the … [Read more...] about HKMA fines JPMorgan Hong Kong branch over anti-money laundering lapses

By Suzanne Barlyn(Reuters) - Wall Street's industry funded watchdog fined the U.S. brokerage unit of Morgan Stanley <MS.N> $10 million on Wednesday for compliance failures in the firm's anti-money laundering programme, the regulator said.gi The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said the lapses spanned more than five years, from January 2011 until April 2016.Morgan Stanley, which agreed to the fine as part of a settlement, did not admit nor deny FINRA's charges, but consented to the entry of the regulator's findings."We are pleased to have resolved this matter from several years ago," Morgan Stanley said in a statement. FINRA rules require brokerages to have policies and procedures in place to comply with a federal law aimed at detecting and curbing money laundering.A Morgan Stanley automated surveillance system did not receive important data from other Morgan Stanley systems, FINRA said. The lapse impaired the firm's overall tracking of tens of billions of dollars … [Read more...] about Morgan Stanley unit to pay $10 million fine for anti-money laundering violations