May ’20 – Jun ’20 Issue

AT Europe v2 n1

Issue: Vol. 2 No. 1 – ACAMS Today Europe

Featured

From the Director of Editorial Content

In This Together

Seemingly contradictory trends are unfolding in the EU as I write this for the May-June issue of ACAMS Today Europe. A leaked European Commission report is proposing the creation of an uber-financial intelligence unit to coordinate and set standards for the 27 member states’ financial intelligence units (FIUs).1 The report further advances a plan to empower one EU-wide anti-financial…

From the Editor

Wild Kingdom

I have recently found myself with time on my hands, as have we all during the COVID-19 pandemic. While checking my social media feed, I came across an article by National Geographic that caught my eye for two reasons. The article was about the plight of the northern white rhinoceros, an incredibly endangered species. There is hope on the horizon through artificial insemination of the few…

 

Inside this Edition

New Technologies: The Emerging Terrorist Financing Risk

Technical innovations in communications and in the financial sector have not been ignored by terrorist groups and organisations. Instead, these innovations have added to terrorist capabilities. Since the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq…


Keeping Europe’s Free-Trade Zones Safe for AML

Free-trade zones (FTZs) pose a regulatory contradiction for governance. Governments, whether those of traditional nation-states or of supranational entities such as the EU, consciously restrict their own powers of taxation, oversight…

Wildlife: The Underreported Illegal Trade

Although anti-money laundering (AML) investigations are ever evolving, one major source of illegal profit internationally remains largely underreported—wildlife trafficking. Wildlife trafficking is a major illegal trade…

ACAMS Germany Chapter: 2019 in Review

The ACAMS Germany Chapter hosted a variety of engaging events throughout 2019. The year began with an event on anti-financial crime and fintech in January. Experts from German fintech Fidor Bank, investment bank Baader Bank…


One Year With the ACAMS Switzerland Chapter

The ultimate objective of the ACAMS Switzerland Chapter is to become part of ACAMS’ global network whilst addressing the specific challenges of the local environment. The chapter strives to broaden information and expertise…

Lorenzo De La Calle Jimenez—Madrid, Spain

Lorenzo De La Calle Jiménez has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services sector with a focus on anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF). De La Calle Jiménez began working for Western Union in…


Sven Eisermann—Berlin, Germany

Sven Eisermann is head of the anti-money laundering (AML) department and deputy money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) at Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) in Berlin. DKB is one of the top 20 banks in Germany to offer online…


Karl-Johan Karlsson—Copenhagen, Denmark

Karl-Johan Karlsson is currently the head of compliance at Handelsbanken in Denmark. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Liverpool. He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and was among…

EU’s Public Beneficial Ownership Registers Are a Game Changer

Identifying beneficial owners with a satisfactory level of certainty has been a manual and often fastidious task for know your customer analysts and compliance officers. Issues vary from deciphering poorly scanned articles of association…

Germany Brings Gatekeepers Into AML Framework

Allegations of the real estate market being used for money laundering (ML) and tax evasion have made headlines in the German media. This has resulted in heated political debates across the political spectrum, particularly, debates on the…


Borderless Cryptocurrency, Borderless Regulation

In 2008, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin white paper describing a cryptocurrency free from the control of governments or banks.1 Twelve years later, there are over 2,000 cryptocurrencies, but Nakamoto’s…


GDPR: Privacy vs Investigations

The European Commission is required to submit a report reviewing the impact of Article 97 of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the European Council by 25 May 2020. As a part of the review, the Commission…

Why Does the Computer Say No? Algorithm Transparency for AFC Systems

When the phrase ‘computer says no’ was first used in ‘Little Britain’, a British comedy show from over a decade ago, it resonated with many because it reflected the widespread use of algorithms in day-to-day decision-making. Carol…


EU-UK Sanctions Post-Brexit: Compliance Preparations and Deliberations

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, and has now entered an 11-month transition period. Whilst most of the ongoing press coverage is focused on efforts to reach a trade deal, other issues—including future co-operation…

To Detect Financial Crime, Machine Learning Requires the ‘Human Touch’

The application of big data and machine learning in anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring (TM) programs is undeniably vast. Over the past five years, financial institutions (FIs) have assessed how they could…

Schutz von Europas Freihandelszonen vor Geldwäsche

Freihandelszonen konfrontieren eine Vielzahl an Governance-Bemühungen mit einem Widerspruch. Die Regierungen, seien es die traditioneller Nationalstaaten oder supranationaler Einheiten wie der EU, schränken ihre eigenen…


Wildtiere: ein wenig beachteter Schwarzmarkt

Obwohl sich Ermittlungsverfahrenen zur Bekämpfung von Geldwäsche (AML) ständig weiterentwickeln, bleibt eine Hauptquelle für illegale Erlöse auf internationaler Ebene weitgehend unbekannt—der Handel mit Wildtieren. Der…


Deutschland setzt Gatekeeper im Kampf gegen Geldwäsche ein

Vorwürfe, der Immobilienmarkt werde für Geldwäsche (GW) und Steuerhinterziehung genutzt, haben in den deutschen Medien für Schlagzeilen gesorgt. Dies hat zu heftigen politischen Debatten im gesamten politischen Spektrum geführt…

La Mondialisation de la Justice Négociée : Le Cas Français

La justice négociée est un accord passé avec l’autorité de supervision par lequel une société objet d’une enquête pour délinquance économique et financière accepte de reconnaître des éléments de fait sans reconnaître sa culpabilité, de…


Animaux Sauvages : Le Commerce Illégal Sous-Déclaré

Bien que les enquêtes sur la lutte contre blanchiment de capitaux (LBC) soient en constante évolution, une source majeure de profit illégal à l’échelle internationale demeure largement inconnue : le trafic d’espèces sauvages. Le trafic…


RGPD : Confidentialité vs Enquêtes

La Commission européenne est tenue de soumettre au Conseil européen, avant le 25 mai 2020, un rapport examinant l’impact de l’article 97 du Règlement général sur la protection des données (RGPD) de l’UE. Dans le cadre de l’examen…