The Netherlands remains ranked as the world’s 13th most valuable brand nation. The country’s brand value is down by 21% to US$945 billion. The top 100 nation brands based in the Brand Finance Nation Brands 2020 ranking lost US$13.1 trillion of brand value last year as they were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, China’s brand value stands at US$18.8 trillion. It continues to close in on the US, which has a brand value of US$23.7 trillion. Japan was ranked 3rd in the world as its economy recovered quickly and remained largely intact from the pandemic. Ireland has been the only nation brand in the top 20 to see brand value growth of up to 11% at US$670 billion due to its robust economy bolstered by strong exports and consumer spending. Vietnam, which has been emerging at the Southeast Asian center for manufacturing, has outranked the global trend with a brand value up 29%. Continue reading…

With the support of Eurojust, the Dutch fiscal authorities have halted a major scam to avoid the payment of VAT via trading companies. By setting up a string of enterprises in the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and Croatia, a network of traders in Secure Digital (SD) memory cards for mobile phones allegedly defrauded the Dutch fiscal authorities for an estimated amount of EUR 9 million between 2017 and 2020. During an action day supported by Eurojust, 13 places have been searched and communications equipment, documents and digital evidence was seized. Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

Economic crime scholarship presents an organisation as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, organisations are cheated by their employees, discriminated by corrupt public officials, and face cyberattacks, whereas on the other hand, organisations evade taxes, defraud their customers, and cheat competitors. While fraud, corruption and other forms of economic crime cause immense losses to individual organisations, as well to society, many of those crimes are committed by organisations themselves. On Thursday, February 4, 2021 the 2nd Winter Economic Crime Symposium – Organizations: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators was held online by the Centre for Counter-Fraud Studies at the University of Portsmouth. The event sought to explore the network of relationships inside and between organisations and how it should not be reduced to two groups, victims and perpetrators. With a theme focused on economic crime, several professionals gave keynote presentations on a range of topics from brand protection, corruption, corporate compliance, foreign bribery, and intellectual property (IP) crime. The Risk & Compliance Platform Europe was also a media partner and covered the event via its website. This is part one in a series of five articles on the event.
Continue reading…

The disruption created by technological progress in the market for financial services arises from (i) an expanded set of services offered to consumers; (ii) the processes and distributional channels followed by firms in offering those services; and (iii) the arrival of new (technological) suppliers of those services. These developments are bound to generate profound changes in the market structure, as non-bank fintech players are now becoming very active in offering services that in the past were predominantly offered by banks. Their presence in the payment service area is already quite significant. However, they are also gaining weight in the provision of wealth management services, the sale of insurance products and loan underwriting. Those services are increasingly being provided within established technology platforms run by large companies (big techs), where a variety of financial and non-financial products are offered by a plurality of suppliers that may or may not be linked to the platform owner. A growing number of products and players increases supply, lowers the cost of financial services and encourages financial inclusion. However, it may also generate risks for the stability and adequate functioning of the financial system. Continue reading…

With environmental crime expanding rapidly on a global scale, Eurojust has presented a new report on its casework in this field. The report summarises experiences encountered in the cross-border criminal cases referred to the Agency between 2014 and 2018 and provides a concise overview of legal and operational challenges. The Report on Eurojust’s Casework on Environmental Crime highlights best practice which should help national authorities overcome these challenges and recommends ways to develop effective cooperation within the European Union and with partner countries. According to an Interpol and United Nations Environment Programme, environmental crime is the fourth-largest criminal activity in the world, growing at a rate of between 5 % and 7 % per year. It endangers not only habitats and populations of wildlife but also entire ecosystems and living environments. Major environmental offences can generate very high profits and carry a relatively low risk of detection. Often, they’re committed by organised crime groups (OCGs) that operate across the EU’s internal and external borders. Continue reading…

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) recently published its Risk Dashboard based on the third quarter of 2020 Solvency II data. The results show that insurers’ exposures to macro risks decreased from very high to high level, while all other risk categories remain at medium level. Going forward, European supervisors expect an increase in credit, market and underwriting risks over the next 12 months, reflecting concerns over second lockdowns due to new waves of the pandemic as well as potential cliff effects once fiscal support measures will be over. With regards to macro risk, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecasts, amid upward revisions, show the strongest expected decline in the last quarter of 2020 and the first recovery in the second quarter of 2021. However, potential cliff effects have to be considered in the future. The registered unemployment rate remained at the very high level in September. The 10 year swap rates decreased reaching new lows. Fiscal balance deteriorated as a consequence of the supporting fiscal packages by governments. Continue reading…

by Dina-Perla Portnaar

The Ashton Whiteley Scam illustrates how financial crime really works. Not a lot of personal cases were shared with the public before in order to make financial crime tangible. Here is an outline of the events given by one of the many victims of the Ashton Whiteley Scam that took place a couple of years ago. The man shared his story with me, which we have shared in a couple of articles. Here is part three, the last one.
Continue reading…

Mr. Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada recently gave a speech in Ottawa, Ontario on 20 January 2021. Thank you for joining me to discuss the recent policy announcement and the Bank’s Monetary Policy Report (MPR). Our message is threefold. First, the current surge of COVID-19 is a serious setback. With elevated infection rates and stricter containment measures in many parts of the country, households and businesses are facing renewed strains. The economy is slowing, and high contact activities are once again being hit hardest. Second, with effective vaccines now rolling out, the prospects for a strong, sustained recovery through the second half of this year have improved in Canada and across most advanced economies. And third, the Bank of Canada will continue to support Canadians and the Canadian economy through these difficult times. Continue reading…

The European Commission has recently begun launching its new Green Consumption Pledge, the first initiative delivered under the New Consumer Agenda. The Green Consumption Pledge is part of the European Climate Pact which is an EU-wide initiative inviting people, communities and organisations to participate in climate action and build a greener Europe. With their signatures, companies promise to accelerate their contribution to a green transition. The pledges have been developed in a joint effort between the Commission and companies. Their aim is to accelerate the contribution of businesses to a sustainable economic recovery and to build consumer trust in the environmental performance of companies and products. Colruyt Group, Decathlon, LEGO Group, L’Oréal and Renewd are the first pioneering enterprises that are participating in this pilot project. The functioning of the Green Consumption Pledges will be assessed in a year from now, before next steps are taken. Continue reading…