The expected approval of amendments to the EU's proposed Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive will shine greater light on tax evaders and financial criminals hiding behind shell companies and trusts, according to Judith Sargentini, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.
European parliamentary members are set to require countries to publish registries naming the beneficial owners of privately-held corporations and trusts as part of a broad overhaul to the EU's anti-money laundering rules.
The EU is pushing the United States for answers following reports that the National Security Agency siphoned bank messaging data held in the European Union, possibly in violation of a July 2010 treaty.
Defense attorneys are hoping to overturn convictions against their clients in dozens of money laundering, drug and other cases that they say may have been based on undisclosed national security data.
A group of European Parliament members will soon weigh in on whether lawmakers should create an EU-wide police force and more closely cooperate on border security to stem financial crime, according to Bill Newton Dunn, a British lawmaker.
The top European Union official for civil rights said Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department has yet to answer all of her concerns about a controversial American surveillance program.
The indictment of a now-defunct Swiss financial institution and threatened charges against the country's largest publicly-owned bank fueled Switzerland's decision last month to seek a broad data-sharing agreement with American officials.
U.S. law enforcement officials and regulators have queried the nation's financial intelligence unit about securities settlements that use the world's top financial messaging platform, according to the agency's director.
Banks in Switzerland will be the first to disclose their American accountholders directly to U.S. officials rather than their government under the terms of a bilateral tax cooperation agreement.
The United States disclosed a plan Thursday that would allow Switzerland and Japan to comply with a controversial U.S. anti-tax evasion law despite bank secrecy controls in the countries.
Even as Swiss and U.S. authorities near an expected settlement over American allegations of tax evasion, some financial institutions in Switzerland are informing their clients how to disguise money abroad, say industry sources.
As Switzerland nears approval of a draft law allowing for greater financial data-sharing, Swiss officials will again find themselves navigating between two competing interests: protecting the nation's bank secrecy and pleasing those who wish to dismantle it.
Countries should ease their privacy restrictions that hinder cross-border data-sharing on suspicious transactions, according to a Toronto-based intergovernmental group of financial intelligence units.
Two initiatives to recover assets embezzled by corrupt political leaders will result in banks receiving more subpoenas and data requests from law enforcement, say analysts.
Switzerland will begin disclosing account data on nearly 4,000 UBS AG clients within a week after Swiss lawmakers Thursday approved the handover, marking an unprecedented exception to the country's bank secrecy laws.
A decision by a Swiss court suspending challenges of a U.S. investigation of UBS AG accounts has cleared the way for Swiss lawmakers to decide in June whether to turn over account data.
The rejection by the EU Parliament Thursday of a data sharing agreement with the United States is likely to leave U.S. investigators without timely access to European banking data for the second month in a row.
EU party leaders have rejected delaying a Thursday vote on an interim agreement to share European financial data with U.S. counterterrorism investigators.
A Swiss proposal of how to circumvent a court ruling that blocked an August data exchange agreement may leave U.S. investigators with fewer names of suspected tax cheats than expected.
At least half a dozen Swiss banks are scaling back their dealings with wealthy U.S. clients following a nearly $800 million penalty against UBS AG, according to news reports and tax analysts.