Banks worldwide have been struggling in the battle against financial crime. Recent high-profile examples demonstrate that the rate of anti-money laundering (AML) compliance enforcement is continuing to rise. At the same time, the cost of compliance failure is escalating with fines and provisions increasing by at least 300% during the second half of 2012 compared to the first. If the related impact to banks’ bottom line is not damaging enough, the loss of trust among customers and regulators makes the combined effect potentially life-threatening.
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by Evert-Jan Lammers

If you are not a sponsor, an athlete or a gambler you probably wouldn’t know that the largest running event in Europe took place last weekend in Brussels. But you would know of the coming-up European football championship and the Olympic games. What you should know is that in most sports, big and small, international and local, there is match fixing, doping of athletes, and vote-buying (in bidding). The world of sports is infected. If only we could smell it.
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by Tony de Bree

One of my favourite books on change is this book ‘The Fat Firm’. Why? Because the book mainly uses cartoons to demonstrate the behaviour of employees and managers in large corporates (‘Dinosaurs’ or like in the case of Banking ‘Jurassic banks’). Corporate culture is a hot topic again in large organisations and in management circles. With special attention focus on how managers and employees in large corporates can start to behave like managers and employees in startups. That is why in this column, I will help you in finding the correct ‘levers of change’ for your corporate culture and to transform your organisation from a ‘boss-centric’ one to an organisation with a ‘client-centric’ corporate culture. What is corporate culture?

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by Evert-Jan Lammers

Nobody wants to be spied upon and then reported to the authorities like it happened during the war. Whistleblowers provoke war traumas even to those who have never experienced war. However, whistleblowers are not war-heroes but peace-heroes. No drama then?
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by Kieran Beer

The Panama Papers are justifiably grabbing headlines based on the number of “A-list” politicians and celebrities, as well as the handful of notorious criminals, that they name. And their sheer volume—11.5 million documents—represents an unparalleled look at the machinations involved in the use and abuse of shell companies, in this case those created by Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. But it’s important to step back and have a little perspective: the use of shell companies for tax evasion, the proceeds of corruption and other crimes detailed in the papers are outrageous, but sadly nothing new.
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by Evert-Jan Lammers

Some organizations address integrity issues in the in-house magazine, in balanced scorecards, in board meetings, in their communication to stakeholders. Other organizations don’t. Good versus bad company or proactive versus reactive company. Let’s zoom-in on the pro-active companies, the mature organizations. Their board meetings are not only about the what-and-when, but also about the why-and-how. Participants in these meetings dare to speak-up, empowered and protected by shared values. These meeting rooms are light and clear.

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The Basel Committee today published the results of its latest Basel III monitoring exercises. The Committee established a rigorous reporting process to regularly review the implications of the Basel III standards for banks and it has published the results of previous exercices since 2012. All large internationally active banks meet Basel III minimum and CET1 target capital requirements.
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by Andy Scherpenberg

More and more financial institutions are attempting to tackle the issue of fraud, which is taking on new forms and ever larger proportions at a rapid pace. Phishing has been replaced by aggressive ‘vishing’ (voice phishing), which has hoaxed corporates such as Michelin into transferring millions to ill-intentioned parties. The modus operandi has shifted from cyber thugs attempting site takeover to online fraudsters using unsuspecting mule accounts or organized collusions with people who hand over their accounts to be used as transfer accounts while levying a fee for the service.
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by Philipp Härle, Andras Havas and Hamid Samadari

Banks have made dramatic changes to risk management in the past decade—and the pace of change shows no signs of slowing. Here are five initiatives to help them stay ahead. Risk management in banking has been transformed over the past decade, largely in response to regulations that emerged from the global financial crisis. But we believe it could be set to undergo even more sweeping change in the next decade. Indeed, while risk-operational processes such as credit administration today account for some 50 percent of the function’s staff, and analytics just 15 percent, by 2025 those figures could be around 25 percent and 40 percent respectively. Continue reading…

by Event-Jan Lammers

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) can prosecute you in the UK for acts of corruption even if your head offices are based in Belgium, your factory is located in Chile, and your Singapore agent is paying bribes in Taiwan. If your organization has a close connection to the UK, for example an English business partner, one day you will feel a hand on your shoulder: the SFO has found you. Should this idea keep you awake? Continue reading…