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ACAMS Today Europe is a digital magazine with insightful and timely anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism-related content. Its content brings awareness of financial crime issues from experts of the compliance field. This digital magazine is exclusive to ACAMS members.

A subset of this publication is our Europe Express column, which covers anti-financial crime-related content with a regional focus in Europe from subject-matter experts.

Recently Featured

Harmonisation of the EU AML Framework

Whilst the EU’s anti-money laundering (AML) directive has been in existence since 1991, the framework has continued to evolve over the past 30 years. The European Commission has implemented the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations whilst increasingly adopting its own standards and best practices to meet the political and economic requirements of its 27 member states.

Italy: The Mafia’s Infiltration Into Healthcare

Organised crime has a triple interest in the direct and indirect management of health services in Italy. First, there is interest because of the huge amount of money that revolves around these services, which can guarantee large profits for gangs. Second, investment in health is a fairly easy way to launder the proceeds of illegal activities derived mainly from drug trafficking.

Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Spurs on a United Europe

In 31 March, ACAMS was privileged to host the “Anti-Financial Crime Symposium—Baltics” in Vilnius. About 250 Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian anti-financial crime (AFC) professionals from the private sector and government were delighted by the opportunity to meet face-to-face for the first time in more than two years.


Previously Featured

Harmonisation of the EU AML Framework

Whilst the EU’s anti-money laundering (AML) directive has been in existence since 1991, the framework has continued to evolve over the past 30 years. The European Commission has implemented the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations whilst increasingly adopting its own standards and best practices to meet the political and economic requirements of its 27 member states.

Italy: The Mafia’s Infiltration Into Healthcare

Organised crime has a triple interest in the direct and indirect management of health services in Italy. First, there is interest because of the huge amount of money that revolves around these services, which can guarantee large profits for gangs. Second, investment in health is a fairly easy way to launder the proceeds of illegal activities derived mainly from drug trafficking.

Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Spurs on a United Europe

In 31 March, ACAMS was privileged to host the “Anti-Financial Crime Symposium—Baltics” in Vilnius. About 250 Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian anti-financial crime (AFC) professionals from the private sector and government were delighted by the opportunity to meet face-to-face for the first time in more than two years.


ACAMS Germany Chapter: 2021 in Review

In 2021, the ACAMS Germany Chapter hosted five online events covering a range of emerging topics, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) and decentralised finance (DeFi). In addition, it covered developments in some of the most crucial areas of anti-financial crime (AFC), such as sanctions and transaction monitoring.


ACAMS Malta Chapter: Virtually Building A Community From Zero

When we set out to build a new ACAMS Chapter in Malta more than two years ago, in December 2019, we were excited. Malta is a place that values connections and relationships, debate and education. At the time, Malta’s national anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework was coming under the international spotlight following MONEYVAL’s 2019 Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report on Malta.

Samar Pratt, CAMS-Audit—UK

Samar Pratt leads Exiger’s financial crime compliance advisory practise, specialising in audit and assurance. Since joining Exiger, Pratt has served as the deputy monitor on behalf of the US Department of Justice, and led independent examinations for the Financial Conduct Authority and the New York Federal Reserve board. In addition, she has helped clients to strengthen their financial crime compliance controls across the three lines of defence.

ACAMS Luxembourg Chapter: Continuous Growth and Looking Ahead

Located in proximity to political and financial “centres” Brussels and Frankfurt, Luxembourg—seat to several EU institutions, including the European Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office—offers a dynamic scene for both private companies and public organisations.

ACAMS UK Chapter—A Short History in Time

In the last 10 years, the ACAMS UK chapter has become a force with which to be reckoned. Since its inception in 2011, the chapter board has comprised a stellar group of professionals, including veterans in law enforcement and the financial services industry.

Yuri Broodman, CAMS—Netherlands

Yuri Broodman is a proactive team player with 20 years of business experience in various functions. In addition, from 1999 to 2007, he served in the Royal Netherlands Navy. In 2014, Broodman began his compliance career in Luxembourg. His career advanced from senior compliance officer to country head of Financial Crime and Regulatory Compliance at HSBC.

Luiza Jarocka, CAMS—Poland

Luiza Jarocka, head of compliance for MoneyGram International, is responsible for customer investigations and regulatory filing of suspicious activity reports, suspicious transaction reports and customer transaction reports in over 30 jurisdictions.


Andrew Mackay, CAMS—Malta

Andrew Mackay is an independent AML/CFT compliance consultant currently engaged in the Caribbean, Malta and other international financial centres. Previously, Mackay was the head of Financial Crime Threat Mitigation for HSBC in Malta. This role involved identifying, understanding and mitigating the financial crime risks in Malta and transnationally through investigations, analytics and intelligence.

The Long and Winding Road to Anti-financial Crime Harmony

Music is an important part of many people’s lives. The first time I heard a live duo was on the playground in elementary school. I loved swinging and there were only a few swings available during recess for the entire school. Of course, if you were lucky to get one of those coveted swings, it always came with a duo concert from Justin and Scott singing songs from Metallica and Guns N’ Roses at the top of their lungs.

Financial Risks Involving the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan

The Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan in August 2021 presents the international community, including the financial industry, with a range of complex challenges. Not only are key stakeholders of the Taliban regime sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and several governments, including the US, but the Taliban movement continues to maintain a close symbiotic relationship with al-Qaida.

EU-wide Rules for Crypto Assets

Crypto assets have given private individuals and groups the ability to access and provide a range of alternative financial services, which fall outside the scope of traditional banking, investments and payment services’ monopolies.

The Evolution of Social Fraud

Fraud can be simply described as the act of deception for personal gain. Acts of deception usually involve victims, either individuals or businesses. In most fraud occurrences, the primary motive and gain is financial. However, data has also become the primary target of fraudulent acts.


Matis MĂ€eker: Starting With a Clean Slate

ACAMS Today Europe editorial interviewed Matis MĂ€eker, head of the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and a member of the MONEYVAL Bureau. MĂ€eker has been the evaluator and reviewer of many mutual evaluation reports conducted by MONEYVAL. He is also a member of the Estonian delegation to MONEYVAL and a member of the Heads of FIU of the Egmont Group.

Italy: The Mafia’s Infiltration Into Healthcare

Organised crime has a triple interest in the direct and indirect management of health services in Italy. First, there is interest because of the huge amount of money that revolves around these services, which can guarantee large profits for gangs. Second, investment in health is a fairly easy way to launder the proceeds of illegal activities derived mainly from drug trafficking.

Lora von Ploetz: The New Face of Leadership

ACAMS Today Europe spoke with Lora von Ploetz, head of a Global Financial Crime Unit focusing on mitigating significant financial crime risks, proactive investigations, analytics and technology. She discusses the impact of Russian sanctions, challenges faced by European anti-financial crime (AFC) professionals and how she has been a mentor for women in AFC.

The Global Rise of Crypto-based Investment Scams

According to recent estimates, cryptocurrency-based crime reached a new all-time high in 2021, with 14 billion dollars of stolen funds, compared to 7.8 billion dollars in 2020. One of the most common ways to steal money from unsuspecting investors is the so-called “rug pull,” a practice whereby developers build what appears to be a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform to lure investors in and steal their funds.

Metaverse: A Virtual World

The metaverse has been making headlines for the past few months since Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta. However, there is much more to the metaverse than Facebook’s version. The metaverse has actually been around for a few years now, and there is more than one single metaverse. The metaverse itself is a concept in its very early stages of development.

Institution-related Trafficking: Ukrainian Children at Risk

A month after the invasion of Ukraine, more than seven million people had been displaced as a direct result of the war, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) highlighted that most displaced people and refugees are women and children.


Central Bank Digital Currencies: The Do’s and Don’ts

Monetary value has taken various forms over time—beef, salt, mother of pearl, amber, metal, paper, shells, etc. Today, there are two types of money issued by countries via their central banks: fiduciary money or fiat (money and banknotes) and scriptural money (checks and transfers).

The Role of ESG in Global Governance and the Supply Chain

Environmental crime is one of the largest criminal activity sectors in the world. There are many kinds of environmental crimes, including illegal emissions into the air, discharge of substances into water or soil, illegal trade in wildlife or ozone-depleting substances, as well as illegal shipments or rubbish dumping.

France: The Risks of Outsourcing AML Tasks

In today’s world, decentralisation and globalisation are universally accepted values. Indeed, manufacturing a single pair of jeans involves multiple actors from around the world. “It is estimated that for some [jeans], if you were to put each one of them end to end, the jeans would stretch in kilometres, one and a half times around the world (i.e. 65,000 km!).”

The Network-centric Approach: Helping Financial Crime Investigators to Combat Environmental Crimes

Environmental crime might sound new to financial crime professionals, but it is a challenge that investigators have wrestled with for years. Discussions about using open-source intelligence (OSINT) to prevent financial crime have long been underway. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published articles urging organisations to consider the importance of environmental crime when doing business.

Paper Leaks: Their History and Impact

The Pandora Papers refers to a set of documents leaked from offshore services firms detailing tax evasion and avoidance practices, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in October 2021. The ICIJ is a non-profit network that works with more than 100 media organisations and 280 journalists in more than 100 countries and shares sources, transcripts and videos of interviews.

Targeted Financial Sanctions and Their Interaction With Trusts

Several jurisdictions have recently put in place sanctions against individuals with ties to the Russian government, either directly or through enterprises. As targeted financial sanctions (TFS) place freezing measures on sanctioned individuals’ economic resources, some sanctioned individuals might inevitably seek ways to avoid these restrictions.