Anti-money laundering (AML) regulation continues to be both a high profile risk and continually changing area. Regulators across the world are consistently taking decisive, public action against firms and individuals for AML failures, in an effort to combat financial crime. When we look globally at enforcement fine amounts over the past five years, financial crime is the second highest category behind conduct of business obligations.
At the recent Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) 10th Annual Taiwan Conference Rod Francis (Senior Managing Director, Financial Crime Compliance) framed the topic of regional AML trends, new developments and what we might expect in 2019. Highlights from the conference are summarised below.
Continued/increase in or a slowdown in new regulation?
It is expected that governments and regulators across the region will continue to issue new financial crime regulations. For example, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) plans to amend rules on Beneficiary Disclosure, given that there have been insufficient disclosures of corporate clients’ beneficiaries by financial institutions, cited as one of Taiwan’s short comings in the Asia Pacific Group’s latest report in 2018.
Additionally, there will be a relentless focus by regulators on effective compliance with existing requirements. Patience is running out with delays in implementing strong Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) controls and a greater emphasis on personal accountability is being used to help focus efforts. It is suspected that some emerging market territories in APAC will continue to be playing catch up.
