Sanctions Archives - ACAMS Today

June – August 2025, Sanctions, Tech Scope, Understanding AI

AI: Transforming model validation in sanctions screening

June 11, 2025July 3, 2025 /Leave a comment

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are positively impacting sanctions screening. More organizations are benefiting from reducing false positives, improving match accuracy and, overall, making screening engines more efficient. However, what about the other side of the equation―making sure those screening engines are doing their...

AFC Policy, Global Financial Crime Review, June – August 2025, Sanctions

Kleptocracy and sanctions: Keeping the proper focus

June 11, 2025July 3, 2025 /Leave a comment

Kleptocracy is the misappropriation―or, to put it plainly, the stealing―of a country’s wealth and resources from its citizens by corrupt government officials. With the rise of kleptocracy, preventing and detecting sanctions evasion today has become a game of Whac-A-Mole for anti-financial crime (AFC) professionals. However,...

Europe Express, March – May 2025, Sanctions, World Digest

Instant Payments: A Sanctions Revolution or Burden

March 19, 2025March 21, 2025 /Leave a comment

Ten seconds―that is all it takes to break payment barriers across European borders under the European Union’s (EU) new Instant Payment Regulation (IPR). Entered into force in April 2024, it requires all payment service providers (PSPs) to receive instant payments as of January 9, 2025,...

December 2024 – February 2025, Sanctions

Balancing Costs and Strict Liability: A New Normal

December 19, 2024December 19, 2024 /Leave a comment

The ongoing convergence of the world’s financial and physical supply chains has created new regulatory realities. For financial institutions and the supply chains they finance operationalizing while optimizing sanctions and trade control compliance processes and procedures can be challenging. This can be especially true when...

June – August 2024, Sanctions

Key Elements to a Successful Sanctions Program

June 14, 2024 /Leave a comment

Sanctions have been a part of the U.S. banking industry since the War of 1812, when the U.S. Department of the Treasury enforced sanctions against Great Britain for the offensive behavior they showed toward American soldiers. Since then, we have seen changes in the world...

ACAMS Connection, Exclusive, Sanctions

Sanctions and the War of 1812: An overview

May 24, 2024June 3, 2024 /Leave a comment

While economic sanctions are a frequent component of U.S. foreign policy today and have been used frequently for much of the past century, their use as a tool to protect American interests goes back to the republic’s early days. The Office of Foreign Assets Control...

Global Financial Crime Review, Sanctions, World Digest

Sea-Based Sanctions Evasion

January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 /Leave a comment

The Russia-Ukraine war and the subsequent sanctions imposed against Russia by Western powers have led to Russia’s increasing reliance on deceptive shipping methodologies to circumvent these sanctions. Among the many sanctions issued in 2023, in December the U.K. sanctioned 46 Individuals and groups involved in...

ACAMS Connection, Sanctions, World Digest

Russia and Iran’s Continued Efforts to Challenge International Sanctions

January 5, 2024January 16, 2024 /Leave a comment

On August 23, 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made waves at the annual BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations summit with a common currency proposal for BRICS countries to reduce dependency on the U.S. dollar, resulting in concerns that...

December 2023 – February 2024, Sanctions

Can Smart Sanctions Achieve Their Intended Goals?

December 13, 2023 /Leave a comment

Targeted sanctions, also called “smart sanctions,” have become increasingly popular with foreign policymakers to pressure specific entities or individuals in a targeted nation while minimizing negative impacts on innocent civilians. The main objective of targeted sanctions is to influence the behavior of the targeted individual...

December 2023 – February 2024, Sanctions

Combating Sanctions Evasion

December 13, 2023 /Leave a comment

Sanctions compliance officers today are living in tumultuous times. Ask any group of sanctions compliance officers what has been keeping them busy and one response is likely to come up quite often: Sanctions against Russia. While not subject to comprehensive sanctions, Russia has become “the...