Europe to set out tax evasion sanctions – The European Commission is set to lay out new plans today for a unified approach to tackling tax evasion across member states, including setting up a dedicated team of auditors. The Commission will argue a common approach will “defeat the fraudsters and evaders” and enable it to […]

Gaining Objective Geopolitical Risk Assessment – Geopolitical risk is often viewed as too difficult to assess objectively, too complicated to measure and too uncertain to manage. Subsequently, institutions are reluctant to include this type of risk in their decision making. This paper, however argues that ‘up-to-date, objective, tailored, and multi layered analyses of regions and […]

Seychelles: The Seychelles’ Foundations Act 2009 – Another jurisdiction which has recently entered into the foundations market is the Seychelles, which enacted the Foundations Act 2009 (the “Act”) in December of that year. We have briefly considered below certain key aspects of the Seychelles’ law which differentiate it from some of the other offshore offerings […]

The Puppet Masters Anti-Corruption Conference – Guernsey’s Anti-Bribery and Corruption Committee has hosted a conference on anti-corruption, which was attended by over 450 delegates. This committee comprises representatives of the Law Officers’ Chambers, Guernsey Law Enforcement and the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. The reference in the conference title to the “Puppet Masters” was taken, by […]

FATF Blacklists Ecuador, Yemen, Vietnam, Upgrades Philippines. – the Financial Action Task Force said Friday it added Ecuador, Yemen and Vietnam to its list of countries that haven’t made sufficient progress in tackling money laundering and terrorist financing. The three countries were slapped with a label saying they either didn’t address deficiencies in fighting money […]

Lessons Learned from ING’s OFAC Violations & $619m Payout – On July 12th, the largest settlement was made between a bank and authorities over a clear violation of U.S. economic sanctions. ING Bank is paying a record $619 million dollar settlement after a joint investigation between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Manhattan District […]

FSA censures Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander Limited – The FSA has issued a public censure against Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander Limited (KSFL), the UK-based subsidiary of the Icelandic banking group Kaupthing Bank Hf (KBHf), for a breach of Principle 2 of the FSA’s Principles for Businesses. KSFL was found to be in breach as it […]

FSA hits Barclays with record £59.5m fine – The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Barclays Bank £59.5m for misconduct relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR). It is the largest fine ever imposed by the FSA. Barclays’ breaches of the FSA’s requirements encompassed a number of […]