(Too many compliance teams at financial services firms rely on spreadsheets and manual processes or internally developed systems to sift through securities data to find sanction risks. But these systems can miss the mark in monitoring and tracking exposures across entities, say officials at Innovative Systems, Inc., the maker of the FinScan offerings for anti-money… Read More >>
SEC to Broker-Dealers: Tighten Up AML Controls
Do the SEC and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) need to tighten up anti-money-laundering (AML) and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (CFT) requirements? You don’t need to know the lyrics to “Tighten Up,” by Houston’s Archie Bell & the Drells, to puzzle out the answer. It does. The SEC’s Division of Examinations (a.k.a. EXAMS) oversees broker-dealers and… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Settles Sanctions Violations Case for $97.8M
Wells Fargo Bank has settled a self-reported case of sanctions violations with two U.S. agencies — the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Federal Reserve — and will pay a total of $97.8 million to resolve violations of economic sanctions against Iran, Syria, and Sudan. The settlement with… 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 >>
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 >>