It is fair to say that the banking sector in Latvia is now being closely scrutinised in a manner that it has not experienced in recent times. The latter half of February in particular witnessed a series of major incidents being reported that have severely dented confidence in the diminutive Baltic nation’s banking industry.
On November 15, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) held its annual general meeting (AGM), during which a small but notable protest vote emerged against the bank’s board appointments and executive remunerations.
Banks continue to unwittingly act as laundromats for dirty money, but hopefully never again on the same scale as the recent operation dubbed Laundromat, which saw billions of dollars pass from Russian sources through numerous banks around the world. Authorities are still working to unravel the tangled trail and uncover those who were complicit in carrying out the shockingly successful operation.
With the fourth EU Directive on Money Laundering coming into force in June this year and instances of financial crime becoming increasingly frequent, it is more crucial than ever for teams within Financial Institutions (FIs), as well as across the industry, to collaborate to tackle financial crime and fraud.
“The Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale”, was the recent assertion by Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe in reference to an international banking scandal that has now rumbled on for over two years, and looks set to continue for some time.
Just as HSBC’s global head of foreign-exchange cash trading in London was about to fly out of New York’s Kennedy International Airport on the evening of Tuesday, July 19, he was arrested by US federal officials.
Banks today need more than lucky breaks to thwart the increasingly persistent and clever efforts of cybercriminals. The risk-management function of every bank today is facing a growing myriad of ever-intensifying threats, from hackers to terrorists, but fortunately there is ammunition at their disposal.