Regulation and Compliance News

The 'net is abuzz: US Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is raising the prospect of slaughtering sacred cows. He has dared to ask one of the most basic questions of all: why does the USA need so many different groups regulating banks? Good question. Surely there can be no complaints about that? Ha! Can you hear the sound of vested interests clanking?

The Jersey Financial Services Commission has issued a consultation paper relating to proposed amendments to the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008.

Beginning in September, FinCEN will provide a file acknowledgement for SARs received as well as provide, at the time of the acknowledgement, a Document Control Number (DCN) for each SAR filed.

The Australian government has today announced a major shake-up in the regulation of the Australian Stock Market. ASX's regulatory function is to be transferred to ASIC.

ASIC has released its policy proposals on competence and training for credit licensees.

The USA's FinCEN yesterday moved to withdraw the "advisory" or warning that it issued in March 2008 in relation to the Turkish region of Cyprus. However, although the formal notice is withdrawn, FinCEN says that the risks that the notice addressed are not removed.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has offered banks and building societies a new waiver from its complaints handling rules regarding unauthorised overdraft charges for up to six months.

When the UK's opposition leader David Cameron said his party was considering abolishing the Financial Services Authority and passing financial sector control to The Bank of England, he mounted an attack on one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's personal monuments. Brown, predictably, responded in the negative. But now the Obama administration has proposed something very similar, putting Brown in the position of telling Obama he's got it wrong, or backing down at home. It can't be an easy choice, even for someone who thinks he saved the world.

In what should have been a surprise, Henry "Hank" Paulson has impressed few with his admissions that he threatened Bank of America that regulators would become interested in the company if it did not take over Merrill Lynch.

It's a mark of just how tunnel-visioned the USA's counter-money laundering strategy is that it is only now getting around to thinking about including non-bank lenders in its regulatory net. The US needs a massive kick in the soft bits and told to get its law sorted out, says Nigel Morris-Cotterill, Head, The Anti Money Laundering Network. It's time the FATF stepped in and issued a warning about the USA, he says.