David Lewis about Combating Financial Economic Crime: “We are doing very badly”

09 May 2022
Knowledge Base

On Friday 29th April 2022, we had the opportunity to talk with David Lewis during the International Risk Congress at the headquarters of Euroclear in Brussels. David Lewis is Managing Director and Global Head of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) advisory Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice at Kroll UK. David Lewis talked with presenter Dina-Perla Portnaar on how he leverages extensive global experience on a daily basis, helping governments, supervisors and regulated firms to combat money laundering effectively.

According to David Lewis, the biggest risks can be found in the financial capitals, New York and London. He also talked about the unprecedented sanctions against Russia and the problems of finding the assets related to shell companies. Recovering any valuables is very difficult, he said. He also encourages investigative journalism as a very valuable asset in combating Financial Economic Crime. Continue reading…

Exploring the monetary policy and financial stability implications of central bank digital currencies

06 May 2022
Knowledge Base

Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, gave an opening speech at the IESE Business School Banking Initiative Conference on Technology and Finance, Frankfurt am Main on 8 April 2022. Thank you for inviting me to this conference. As it explores the interplay between technology and finance, I have chosen to focus my remarks on retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – in other words, the possibility for everyone to use public money for digital payments. It’s hard to think of a better day to discuss the advances of research in this field. Today would have been the 118th birthday of the great economist Sir John Richard Hicks, who once said that “much of economic theory is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game.” Continue reading…

Fraud scheme of at least EUR 440 million in Italy halted

04 May 2022

Italian and Austrian authorities have dismantled a massive fraud scheme set up by a criminal network that used Italian companies to simulate business leases and false tax credits. The perpetrators deprived the Italian authorities of at least EUR 440 million. With the help of Eurojust, approximately 90% of the proceeds have been recovered and 12 suspects have been arrested. Continue reading…

ECB Supervisory Priorities 2022-2024: What Operational Risk Professionals Should Focus on

03 May 2022
Knowledge Base

by Elena Pykhova

The three-year priorities published by the European Central Bank1 is a must-read document for risk practitioners. It outlines important areas of focus for the supervisors – and, equally, banks and their risk teams, who should be analysing and leading the organisational thinking by ensuring maximum awareness of the environment, comprehension of its impact and hence enhanced preparedness necessary to withstand the next crisis. In the post-pandemic environment, it is not surprising to see credit risk and market risk high on the regulatory agenda. As it relates to Operational risk, while it is explicitly mentioned only in relation to IT Outsourcing and Cyber resilience, it has in fact multiple touch points and direct correlation with other areas, whether linked to business model, governance or climate and environmental risk.  Continue reading…

ICC participates in joint investigation team supported by Eurojust on alleged core international crimes in Ukraine

02 May 2022
Knowledge Base

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will become a participant in the joint investigation team (JIT) on alleged core international crimes committed in Ukraine. The JIT, which was set up with Eurojust support on 25 March by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, aims to facilitate investigations and prosecutions in the concerned states as well as those that could be taken forward before the ICC.  Continue reading…

Lieve Lowet

Lieve Lowet

EU Affairs consultant and lobbyist

The intra-European cross-border insurance market: some insights

29 April 2022

Recently, EIOPA published its 2021 Annual Insurance Overview together with updated statistics. The statistics included for the first time for the EEA “Cross-border premiums” allowing for insights on the cross-border activity of insurers both regarding life and non-life insurance business on a freedom of services (FOS) or on a branch basis. We analyzed these cross-border insurance data especially in the context of the current Solvency II review, as Solvency II is a Single Market directive. The establishment of the Single Market for insurance allowing unimpeded cross-border sales and establishment did not come about easily. It started for direct insurance with the adoption of the first non-life insurance directive 73/239/EEC, applied on 27 January 1976. The first life insurance Directive, 78/473/EEC, was applicable as of 2 June 1980. These timid steps were further completed, among others, with the third non-life Directive 92/49/EEC and the third life directive 92/96/EEC applicable as of 1 July 1994. Since then, nearly 20 years passed by. Continue reading…

FSB analyses external vulnerabilities in emerging market economies associated with US dollar funding

27 April 2022
Knowledge Base

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has on April 26th published a report on the interaction between US dollar funding and external vulnerabilities in emerging market economies (EMEs). The report has been prepared in collaboration with the IMF and forms part of the FSB’s work programme on non-bank financial intermediation. The report proposes policy measures to address EME vulnerabilities arising from foreign currency borrowing. These include measures to tackle the build-up of foreign exchange mismatches; enhance crisis management tools; and address data gaps to facilitate risk monitoring and the timely adoption of policies. The report also stresses the importance of ongoing work to address vulnerabilities from liquidity mismatches in open-ended funds, which would also help bolster the resilience of EMEs’ financial systems. Continue reading…

The clock is ticking on International Financial Reporting Standard IFRS 17

26 April 2022
Knowledge Base

The clock is ticking on International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS 17), the January 1, 2023, compliance deadline drawing ever closer. For insurers around the globe struggling with self-development or “empty box” software solutions, there is a new path forward: KPMG IFRS 17 Express – powered by SAS®. The IFRS 17 solution blends KPMG’s deep IFRS experience, SAS’ best-of-breed analytics and an IFRS 17 methodology globally tested by Allianz, one of the world’s leading insurance groups with customers in more than 70 countries.
Continue reading…

FSB report finds that COVID-19 has accelerated the trend towards digitalisation of retail financial services

22 April 2022

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published a report on March 21st about FinTech and Market Structure in the COVID-19 Pandemic. The main finding of the report is that the pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitalisation of retail financial services. While comprehensive data on the market shares of FinTechs, BigTechs and incumbent financial institutions in retail digital financial services are scarce, proxies suggest that BigTechs and larger FinTechs have further expanded their footprint in financial services. Continue reading…

Ukrainian IT company to participate in Brussels Congress on Combating FEC

21 April 2022
Knowledge Base

YouControl is a Ukrainian IT company, developing open data services since 2014 and a same-name analytical system for analysing companies’ and individuals’ activities (https://youcontrol.com.ua/en/). They have many years of successful experience in creating AML and KYC systems used by international companies. The company is a member of 15 business associations, such as the European Business Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many others. Furthermore, YouControl is trusted by the National Bank of Ukraine, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), and many other government regulators. Continue reading…