The Russian Federation has had its membership in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suspended because of its invasion of Ukraine — launched a year ago — and Janet L. Yellen, secretary of the U.S. Treasury is commending the move. In response, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said the move was… Read More >>
PCAOB Helps Auditors Sort Out Russian Sanctions
The global flow of economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine is ongoing and getting more complex. To help broker-dealers and their auditors stay on top of sanctions and their impacts, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently released a “Spotlight” guide on the subject: “Auditing Considerations Related to the Invasion of… Read More >>
Sanctioned Securities Face Ops & Trading Halts
As the Russian military further invades Ukraine, aiming for the capital Kyiv, the global economic sanctions are beginning to take hold for securities-trading firms as the financial retaliations impact trading activity and securities operations. FTF News has been keeping track of the growing list of economic sanctions against Russia via coverage at “SWIFT Expels Key… Read More >>
Justice Department Sharpens Its Focus on Crypto Crime
Has Vlad the Crimea Impaler lost has mind? In the wake of the assault on Ukraine, FTF News is far from the only one asking that question. What’s next? What will stop Vladimir Putin? Around the U.S. and Canada, Russian Vodka is being pulled from liquor store shelves. And if that doesn’t dissuade him from… Read More >>
BAE Systems & Kharon Target Sanctions Screening
BAE Clients Get Access to Kharon’s Analytics Anti-money laundering (AML) solutions provider BAE Systems Applied Intelligence is partnering with Kharon, a research and data analytics vendor to offer BAE customers Kharon’s data and analytics to improve sanctions screening and bolster investigations, officials say. The partnership will enable BAE Systems compliance solution NetReveal to access Kharon… Read More >>
SIX & SimCorp Partner to Ease Sanctions
Financial data services and systems provider SIX has begun a partnership with investment management systems vendor SimCorp that brings together their offerings for the Sanctioned Securities Monitoring Service at a time when sanctions are becoming a hot button issue for many financial services firms. “The partnership between SIX and SimCorp, aims to address and streamline… Read More >>
SSBT & OFAC Resolve Iranian Sanctions Violations
The multiple violations, all of which involved a single American citizen living in Iran, took place from 2012 to 2015. However, OFAC has assessed “no monetary penalty” for those ITSR violations, according to a statement from the Treasury office. According to OFAC, between the beginning of 2012 and September 2015, SSBT “processed at least 45… Read More >>
UniCredit Group Settles Sanctions Cases for $1.3 Billion
The UniCredit Group has reached a combined $1.3 billion settlement with the federal and New York State governments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury reports. And as part of that overall settlement, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also reports that “three separate agreements totaling $611 million” have been reached with three… Read More >>
Société Générale Settles Sanctions & AML Claims for $1.3B
French bank Société Générale will be paying $1.83 billion (€1.2 billion) in penalties to five U.S. authorities in major effort to resolve probes into allegations that the bank has violated economic sanctions and laundered money. Specifically, Société Générale, based in Paris, reached settlement agreements, from largest to smallest, of: $717.2 million to the U.S. Attorney’s… Read More >>
Firms Need Multi-Disciplinary & Complex IT Responses to Sanctions
World events are hitting home for financial services firms as the Obama and Trump administrations have been steadily issuing a growing list of complex economic sanctions against countries that have been hotspots across the globe, including Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, and Syria. These sanctions are compelling firms to formulate multi-disciplinary responses and… Read More >>
