On the second day of the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) the ministers discussed energy taxation and also EU fiscal rules. Hosted by Finance Minister Mika Lintilä at Finlandia Hall, the conference began with resilience to hybrid threats as the main theme. The ministers agreed that the financial sector must beef up its capacity to combat hybrid threats and infrastructure disruptions.

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ECB’s President Mario Draghi and Vice President Luis de Guindos announced that: “Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses we have conducted a thorough assessment of the economic and inflation outlook, also taking into account the latest staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area. As a result, the Governing Council took five decisions in pursuit of its price stability objective.”

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Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s leading wealth managers, has launched it’s ‘MyBrewin app’. This new app is an extension of the current MyBrewin online client portal. The client app has been made available both on the iPhone and Apple Watch and Android-based devices, and will provide Brewin Dolphin clients with instant access to current information about their portfolios, asset allocation and performance.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) will undertake remedial efforts and pay $20 million in penalties to settle charges that it failed to implement policies to manage certain risks as required by U.S. laws and SEC and CFTC rules. According to the SEC’s and CFTC’s respective orders, Chicago-based OCC failed to establish and enforce policies and procedures involving financial risk management, operational requirements, and information-systems security. The SEC’s order also found that OCC changed policies on core risk management issues without obtaining required SEC approval.

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EU countries lost €137 billion in Value-Added Tax (VAT) revenues in 2017 according to a study released by the European Commission. The so-called ‘VAT Gap’ – or the overall difference between the expected VAT revenue and the amount actually collected – has reduced somewhat compared to previous years but remains very high. This substantial VAT Gap again highlights the need for comprehensive reform of the EU VAT rules, as proposed in 2017 by the Commission, and increased cooperation between Member States to clamp down on VAT fraud and to make the rules work for legitimate businesses and traders. The VAT Gap measures the effectiveness of VAT enforcement and compliance measures in each Member State, as it provides an estimate of revenue loss due to fraud and evasion, tax avoidance, bankruptcies, financial insolvencies as well as miscalculations. Continue reading…

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has imposed monetary penalties amounting to Rs 805 million on 10 banks in August 2019 for noncompliance of regulatory requirements. SBP has disclosed significant enforcement actions taken against banks in the last month aimed to bring more transparency and strengthen the market discipline. According to details issued by State Bank, cumulatively Rs 805.1 million monetary fines were imposed on ten banks during August 2019 for violating laws, rules, regulations, guidelines or directives.

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Mr Baldwin was sentenced in his absence after he absconded from justice during his trial for money laundering in July 2017. The sentence also includes punishment for separate contempts of court that he admitted in November 2015 for breaching a Restraint Order made in June 2011. The Restraint Order prevented Mr Baldwin from in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of his assets within or outside of England & Wales.

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With 8 weeks to go until the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union on 31 October 2019, the Commission has today – in its 6th Brexit preparedness Communication – reiterated its call on all stakeholders in the EU27 to prepare for a ‘no-deal’ scenario. In light of the continued uncertainty in the United Kingdom regarding the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement – as agreed with the UK government in November 2018 – and the overall domestic political situation, a ‘no-deal’ scenario on 1 November 2019, remains a possible, although undesirable, outcome.

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Sara Lawson QC, General Counsel of the Serious Fraud Office, speaking at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime 2019. She startes here speech as follows: “I am delighted to be here, for the first time, speaking on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office. You have heard from our Director about what we have been doing; building on the work of Sir David and his team who, amongst other things, pioneered the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and, importantly, made the case for the survival of the SFO so eloquently, not only in words but in deeds. That is to say, by taking on the formidable cases which could only be pursued with the tools and the structure of the SFO.”

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