Remember that time in 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning and its dangers were not yet widely appreciated? That was when a group of United States Senators received closed-door briefings on the imminent crisis presented by COVID-19. What did these senators do right after their secret briefings? Alert the mostly unsuspecting public? Nope. They… Read More >>
FinCEN Proposes SAR Sharing to Foreign Affiliates
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that urges the establishment of a limited-duration pilot program for sharing suspicious activity reports (SARs), in accordance with Section 6212 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. The FinCEN notice also solicits public comment about the program. Under the pilot program, a… Read More >>
Gensler Mulls New Cybersecurity Rules via Expanded SCI
SEC Chair Gary Gensler wants to breathe new life into the fight against cyberattacks and is calling for a refresh of Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI) that might mean new cybersecurity hygiene and incident reporting rules for investment companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers. During his speech for the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s… Read More >>
Crypto Crime Hits $14B in 2021: Report
Crypto investors beware. The good news: Crypto-crime is “becoming a smaller and smaller part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.” That’s according to a blog post “preview” of the 2022 “Crypto Crime Report” from Chainalysis, a cloud-based, blockchain data and analysis platform provider founded in 2014 and headquartered in New York City. The not-so-good news: Crypto crime… Read More >>
NatWest Pleads Guilty via Fraud Case & Pays $35M
NatWest Markets Plc, a London, U.K.-based banking and financial services firm, has entered guilty pleas to charges of perpetrating frauds in the markets for U.S. Treasury securities and futures contracts, the United States Department of Justice reports. The NatWest guilty pleas, tendered in the District of Connecticut, were, specifically, to one count of wire fraud… Read More >>
Get Ready for the FTF Awards 2022
Get your nominations ready for the highly competitive FTF News Technology Innovation Awards 2022 — now in its 12th year — presented by Financial Technologies Forum and the FTF News service. Since 2011, FTF has celebrated and recognized the professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, industry bodies, regulators, and other industry participants that have made… Read More >>
Crypto to Face New Rules in 2022: Regulators
Heavy-hitter federal regulators say new rules are coming for cryptocurrencies, the new, mostly unregulated financial sector that competes with traditional banks without offering deposit insurance, the banks’ most important protection. And cryptography has been beset by high-profile scandals that have cost some would-be crypto millionaires their entire fortunes. As well, at a time of worsening… Read More >>
NatWest Pleads Guilty to Money-Laundering Violations
A large bank is guilty of violating the United Kingdom’s money-laundering regulations. Says who? Says the bank itself. FTF News readers, who are familiar with all the ploys financial institutions employ to avoid saying they’ve done wrong (all that neither-confirming-nor-denying while paying up and agreeing to be censured), will know just how unusual that is…. Read More >>
Justice Department, SEC Focus on Stopping Crypto Crime
Two powerful extensions of the U.S. federal government – the Department of Justice and the SEC – are gearing up to counter the fraud, scams, and abuse that are the dark side of cryptocurrencies and emerging digital assets. Lisa O. Monaco, deputy Attorney General for Justice, launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) this week… Read More >>
Crypto Firms Face Many AML Challenges: Q&A
(A cryptocurrency trading platform, Voyager Digital Ltd., recently announced that it is using anti-money laundering (AML) solutions from NICE Actimize. Voyager has signed onto the cloud-based AML Essentials offerings and will be using the Suspicious Activity Monitoring and Customer Due Diligence applications to monitor its operations. The news gave FTF News an opportunity to reach… Read More >>
