Most of the focus over the past year has been on the events of October 7 and the ensuing war. Not only the citizens, but also the legislative and regulatory authorities in Israel have been devoting most of their time to deal...more
In July 2024, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published its “Quarterly Consultation Paper No. 44” (“Consultation”), which proposed introducing a requirement to provide criminal background checks on owners and...more
Welcome to the second instalment of 2024 of the Regulatory & Risk Advisory Review. In this edition we cover several Cayman Islands regulatory updates including updates to the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act, the...more
केमैन आइलैंड को EU की एंटी-मनी लौंडरिंग सूची से बाहर निकालने की पूरी तैयारी हो चुकी है। यह कार्रवाई वित्तीय एक्शन टास्क फोर्स (Financial Action Task Force, FATF) निगरानी समूह के 27 अक्तूबर 2023 के फैसले के बाद और फिर उसके बाद...more
Welcome to the first instalment of 2024 of our Cayman Islands Regulatory & Risk Advisory Review. As we cover in this issue, there have been a number of updates in the first quarter of the year. Perhaps most notably is the...more
The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) has re-rated the U.S. as “largely compliant” with FATF’s Recommendation 24, which pertains to transparency related to beneficial ownership of legal persons. Specifically, FATF...more
2023 was an active year for the Cayman Islands regulatory industry. While we have endeavoured to keep you updated throughout the year with our Regulatory & Risk Advisory Reviews, our team has highlighted below the key changes...more
Associating the Cayman Islands with money laundering has been a staple of film and television, from "The Firm" in the 1990s to, more recently, "Better Call Saul." However, scriptwriters may need to find another location...more
The Cayman Islands is now set to be removed from the EU anti-money laundering (AML) list. This action follows the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) monitoring group on 27 October 2023 and subsequent removal...more
Today we are very pleased to welcome, once again, guest blogger Dr. Kateryna Boguslavska of the Basel Institute on Governance (“Basel Institute”), who will discuss the Basel Institute’s release of the 12th annual Public...more
As the EU removes the Cayman Islands from the EU AML/CFT blacklist with effect from 7 February 2024, concerns and barriers for EU sell- and buy-side parties on securitisations involving Cayman SSPEs fall away....more
The Cayman Islands recently received an early Holiday gift when the EU Commission published a regulation in mid-December paving the way to remove Cayman from its list of ‘high-risk’ countries for AML/CFT purposes. The...more
1. Bank regulation - 1.1 Prudential regulation - The ESRB has published a speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB and Chair of the ESRB, on its first general warning about financial stability risks that it published...more
The EBA has published the European Supervisory Examination Programme (ESEP) for 2024, which identifies key topics for heightened supervisory attention across the EU. The EBA selected three key topics for supervisory attention...more
The Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") is the global standard-setter on anti-money laundering ("AML"), countering terrorist financing ("CFT") and counter proliferation financing. FATF's standards, also referred to as...more
The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), which is focused on leading global initiatives to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, issued a report regarding the implementation of its recommended standards addressing...more
Following the conclusion of the most recent plenary of the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") on 23 June 2023, the FATF has announced that it has made the initial determination that the Cayman Islands has substantively...more
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has greylisted South Africa, along with Nigeria, for insufficient regulation of financial crimes like money laundering and terrorist financing. South Africa is the second G20 nation...more
Today we are very pleased to welcome, once again, guest blogger Dr. Kateryna Boguslavska of the Basel Institute on Governance (“Basel Institute”), who will discuss the Basel Institute’s recent release of the Basel AML Index...more
Domestic terrorism is not a new threat in America, but in recent years we have seen a significant and horrific increase in violent attacks and activities carried out by individuals and groups motivated by a range of radical...more
On October 21, 2022, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) officially moved Myanmar onto the agency’s blacklist, where it joins Iran and North Korea, the only other two listed countries. It is likely that the United States...more
The guidance is part of the rapidly evolving rules on anti-money laundering and aims to promote UAE as a jurisdiction compliant with best practices. On August 1, 2022, the UAE Central Bank (CBUAE) issued the Guidance for...more
On 1 August 2022, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (the "CBUAE") issued "Guidance for Licensed Financial Institutions ("LFIs") on the risks relating to payments" (the "Guidance")....more
As we have repeatedly blogged, concerns about perceived anti-money laundering (“AML”) risks in the real estate industry are rising globally. Consistent with this concern, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) has updated...more
The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) recently released its Report on the State of Effectiveness and Compliance with the FATF Standards (“Report”). The Report contains the results of its 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations...more