Latest news with #financialRegulations
CTV News
04-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Vancouver's Canaccord Genuity fined $544K over anti-money-laundering rule violations
The logo for Canaccord Genuity is shown in Toronto on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (The Canadian Press / Staff) A Vancouver-based wealth management company has been fined more than half a million dollars for violations of Canada's anti-money-laundering and terrorism financing regulations. Canaccord Genuity Corp. has paid an administrative monetary penalty of $544,500 to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, better known as FINTRAC, the agency announced Thursday. The penalty stems from four violations of the federal Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and its associated regulations, which were discovered during a compliance examination in 2023, FINTRAC said in a news release. The penalty was imposed on May 14 of this year. According to FINTRAC, the company's four violations were: Failure to submit suspicious transaction reports where there were reasonable grounds to suspect that transactions or attempted transactions were related to a money laundering or terrorist activity financing offence. Failure to develop and apply written compliance policies and procedures that are kept up to date; and, in the case of an entity, are approved by a senior officer. Failure to assess and document the risk of a money laundering or terrorist financing offence, taking into consideration prescribed factors. Failure to take the prescribed special measures for high risk. 'The administrative monetary penalty has been paid in full and proceedings have ended,' the FINTRAC release reads. The agency's summary of the penalties goes into more detail about the conduct that led to them, though it does not name any of the Canaccord clients involved. The summary indicates that three suspicious transaction reports – out of 100 case files where such a report was warranted – were not submitted. In one of the cases, Canaccord 'failed to consider the multiple money laundering and terrorist activity financing indicators present,' including 'the use of multiple foreign bank accounts for no apparent reason, common identifiers such as an address being used by multiple clients that appear to be unrelated, and the presence of information that is misleading and vague,' according to FINTRAC. In another case, Canaccord 'received a payment order from a government agency with respect to a high-risk client and was aware of relevant negative media,' and in the third, the company 'discounted crucial money laundering and terrorist activity financing indicators in the course of its periodic reviews, such as relevant negative media articles.' FINTRAC's administrative monetary penalties are intended to encourage compliance, not to punish the entities on which they are imposed. In its 2023-24 reporting year, FINTRAC issued 12 penalties, totalling more than $26 million. Canaccord Genuity describes itself as the world's 'most active mid-market investment bank,' with more than $40 billion in assets under administration and offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, as well as several cities in the U.S., Australia, China, the U.K. and Ireland.
Zawya
01-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Kuwait strengthens anti-money laundering legislation
Kuwait has strengthened its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing law, which will impose tougher penalties for violators, as it seeks to avoid falling foul of a global financial crime watchdog. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering watchdog, said in October that Kuwait's legal and supervisory framework had "serious shortcomings delivering effective outcomes", citing failures in addressing terrorist financing. The FATF requested the establishment of a domestic process tasked with freezing terrorist assets and publishing a full list of individuals under targeted financial sanctions (TFS). Under a decree issued on Monday, a government committee can now be delegated powers to implement resolutions aimed at combating terrorism, its financing and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, with immediate effect. These were previously reserved for the cabinet. It also set fines of up to 500,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($1.64 million) for violations. Finance Minister Nora Al-Fassam said in a statement that the amendments would help Kuwait improve transparency and meet international standards. The government has also introduced the requirement for companies to identify the "beneficial owner", who exercises ultimate control over the firm, and transferred supervision of exchange houses activities from the commerce ministry to the central bank. Kuwait's new law grants the government direct authority to freeze funds and assets suspected of links to money laundering or terrorism financing without a court order, lawyer Fawaz Al-Khatib told Reuters, adding the amendment "brings Kuwait closer to FATF international standards." In the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates, home to financial centres such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, was dropped from the FATF's so-called "grey list" of countries at risk of illicit money flows in February 2024 after a little less than two years. (Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy, editing by Federico Maccioni and Rachna Uppal)
Bloomberg
13-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Can't Derail Climate Agenda, Senior ECB Official Says
Europe's determination to include climate risk in financial regulations won't be thrown off track by the Trump administration's interventions, according to a senior European Central Bank official. 'We always go back to our mandate,' Irene Heemskerk, head of the ECB's Climate Change Centre, said in an interview. 'We see climate and environmental risk — regardless of any political wind that goes around — as relevant for banks to manage.'
SBS Australia
12-06-2025
- Business
- SBS Australia
New regulations hit Buy Now, Pay Later providers
For millions of Australians, Buy Now, Pay Later providers like Afterpay or Zip have become a common tool to take the pain out of purchases by breaking the cost of goods or services into smaller chunks paid over several weeks. As of Tuesday the 10th June, strict new regulations from the Albanese government have come into play with Buy Now, Pay Later providers now treated similarly to a credit card. This last change means that your Buy Now, Pay Later debts could impact your credit score and could impact a customer's future borrowing capacity for a house or a car. SBS Filipino 12/06/2025 08:54 📢 Where to Catch SBS Filipino
CNA
06-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Singapore to block access to trading platforms Octa and XM over unlicensed activity
SINGAPORE: Two overseas online trading platforms will be blocked in Singapore after they were found to have breached financial regulations, according to a joint news release from the police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Friday (Jun 6). The websites of the platforms, Octa and XM, will be inaccessible to users in Singapore from Jun 20. Their services - including leveraged foreign exchange, commodities, indices and equities trading - were offered to Singapore customers without licences under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA). This is a breach of the Act, the police and MAS said. The capital markets services licence is required for an entity to carry out business dealing in capital markets products, which include securities and leveraged foreign exchange trading, the authorities said. Investigations revealed that Octa and XM had also actively offered and marketed their services to customers in Singapore. The platforms are operated by entities incorporated overseas – Octa by Octa Markets and Uni Fin Invest, purportedly based in the Union of Comoros and Mauritius respectively; and XM by XM Global, purportedly incorporated in Belize. The authorities stated that these entities do not hold licences to deal in capital markets products and are therefore prohibited from offering such services. "This prohibition extends to entities operating outside Singapore, when the entities solicit or advertise products or services that are targeted at Singapore persons, or if there is a substantial number of Singaporeans using a foreign entity's products or services," the release said. The information on their websites constitutes prohibited content under the Internet Code of Practice, the authorities added. "As such, access to both trading platforms' websites will be blocked for Singapore residents with effect from Jun 20 and consumers with active accounts with Octa and XM will not be able to access their websites through Internet Access Service Providers based in Singapore." The police and MAS advised the public to deal only with licensed platforms listed in MAS' Financial Institutions Directory. They added that unregulated online trading platforms, particularly those based outside Singapore, pose a greater risk of fraud since the credibility of their operations cannot be easily verified. Such platforms also offer limited recourse for consumers in the event of disputes. They may also require payment for trades to be made using credit or debit cards, posing the added risk of unauthorised card transactions, said the authorities.
