The European Commission last Friday referred Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to the Court of Justice of the European Union, with a request for financial sanctions, for failing to fully implement the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4) into their national law. Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said: “We have robust EU rules in place but they must be applied consistently and efficiently. We will make sure that everyone in both private and public sectors applies the rules rigorously. We have launched many infringement procedures to ensure the full transposition and application of our rules.”  Continue reading…

by Alex Movchan

We recently conducted another interview with Olga Lukashenko who is an Audit Director at Reanda Netherlands. The first interview that was conducted with this special woman can be found on our platform under related items, which was about planning and executing audit engagements during the Covid-19 crisis. This particular talk with Olga covers the topic of conducting audit engagements in regions with a high level of exposure to fraud and corruption.  Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

We have decided to publish a series of articles entitled “Lockdown or Knock-out?” on this platform. We will discuss and comment on the current measures taken by the various governments, economic forecasts from experts and expectations of politicians from the perspective of risk & compliance. We are just going to start and as long as there is no vaccine for the coronavirus, we will regularly discuss the issues that are worthwhile. Today we start with the recent news about lending to business customers in the Netherlands. On the one hand, we see a decrease in the number of infections and deaths, but what does this actually mean for the economy if we put it in a somewhat broader perspective? Is there reason for optimism? We would like to spread the optimistic sound, but we cannot ignore the facts and that they are not good. Did circumstances leave no other choice or have the banks and the responsible minister switched to a form of Russian roulette? ING announced yesterday that it expects to triple the number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands next year. And in the meantime, since the outbreak of the corona crisis, the Dutch banking sector has provided additional credit of around EUR 14 billion. As a result, the percentage of gross national product corporate debt (IMF source) has risen again to over 150 percent. For the critical down-to-earth reviews, who like to make dismissive statements about the financial policy of the so called “garlic countries”: Italian corporate debts are in percentage at over 60 percent of the gross national product. Continue reading…

by Francesco Salerno

This is the second part in a series of two articles written by me about government control of investments in strategic enterprises following the Covid-19 outbreak. The first part can be found in the related items section. Taking into account the guidance outlined in the first part and to guard against the risks of predatory acquisitions of strategic national enterprises, various European countries, including Italy, France, Spain and Germany, have taken action with regard to the screening of foreign direct investments. Continue reading…

by Francesco Salerno

This article is the first of two parts written by me concerning governmental control of investments in strategic enterprises following the Covid-19 pandemic. The articles will be published on two consecutive days. The Covid-19 outbreak has been followed by a raft of measures to lessen its impact on the world of production. Indeed, the majority of countries have intervened in various branches of the law ‒ starting with contract, company and insol­ven­cy/bankruptcy rules ‒ with the stated intent of supporting the economy. Among the many other forms of intervention, changes have been made to the rules on the control of companies operating in strategic sectors. This is because companies often tumble in value in crisis situations, making it easier for them to be snapped up “cheaply”: hence the special attention paid to rules that give governments the power to control investments in strategic enterprises.  Continue reading…

by Alex Movchan

We have recently had the pleasure of speaking with Olga Lukashenko who is an Audit Director at Reanda Netherlands. She is an incredibly dedicated finance professional with experience in accounting, auditing and financial management. She also has a proven track record in preparation of consolidated financial statements according to IFRS and GAAP, IFRS-reporting implementation in different accounting systems, as well as auditing and independent assessment of financial and non-financial data. Olga has an impressive international career with in depth knowledge of audit practices. This year is very unusual in terms of the Covid-19 related situation and many Chief Audit Executives struggle to execute the audit plans given travel restrictions, additional limitations of resources and shifting business priorities.  Continue reading…

by Massimo Balducci

It is time to start some evaluation of institutional responses to Covid-19 emergency. Two questions need to be answered in this first evaluation: (a) was the emergency rightly evaluated or was it under- or over- evaluated? And (b) was the medical response correct and was it possible to adjust it via a trial and error approach? Our hypothesis here is that a misleading institutional construction of reality and weaknesses in the management of information might have caused harm possibly greater than the very virus itself. Was the emergency under- or over-evaluated? Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

Last week, the number of registered unemployed (those claiming benefits) in the USA rose to 39 million. The chairman of the FED expects a further increase in the coming month. Meanwhile, last Sunday, May 24, 2020, the New York Times opens with a more than serious report covering the entire front page. Certainly not fake news. The 6 column heading reads “US DEATHS NEAR 100,000, AN INCALCULABLE LOSS”. The full front page is filled with about a thousand names with short descriptions of deaths from Covid-19 based on obituaries. Only 1 percent of the total. And in the meantime, the president of this country, as a kind of “monkey on the rock”, quietly continues to deal unfairly with mainly female journalists from serious media.. We repeat it again, political risks will be one of the biggest risk factors in the coming years. Continue reading…

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a global public health emergency with severe human and economic consequences. Insurance is an essential service at this time of distress, providing protection against the heightened uncertainties created by the pandemic. For insurers to play this role, and to contribute to economic recovery, the stability of the sector is vital. To this end, the IAIS has been closely monitoring developments and actively coordinating with other standard-setting bodies and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to assess the impact of Covid-19 on the global insurance sector. The IAIS is also committed to supporting the FSB’s recently published principles for ensuring international cooperation and coordination of responses to Covid-19. Moreover, the IAIS is facilitating the sharing of information and discussion among its broad membership on supervisory responses to the impact of Covid-19. Continue reading…

The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, made a statement on May 11 that the European Banking Authority (EBA) should have disallowed Adam Farkas, its previous Executive Director, from assuming the position of CEO of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), which is one of the main lobbyist groups of the financial sector. An investigation into this matter was subsequently launched after receiving complaints made by several MEPs and the Change Finance coalition. The European Ombudsman is an independent authority that examines complaints made against the EU. As such, Emily O’Reilly has found that the EBA should have rejected Adam Farkas’s move from the EBA to the AFME. Continue reading…