The United Kingdom Tuesday outlined how it might soon get tougher on tax cheats through revised penalties and clearer standards for criminal prosecutions when individuals are aided by commercial advisors.
European Union officials discussed plans Tuesday to cooperate with a U.S. law aimed at tax evaders, and the expected introduction of a new model agreement for related, reciprocal data exchanges.
The U.S. government's increased scrutiny of legal and financial gatekeepers tied to money laundering schemes is likely to motivate some banks to spend more time reviewing related accounts, say compliance professionals.
The United Kingdom's HM Treasury is considering changes to its anti-money laundering regulations, including whether to decriminalize failures to properly collect and retain customer due diligence data, according to a British legal group.
Plans to make tax evasion a predicate crime of money laundering will likely be successful despite speculation that broader financial regulatory reform is foundering, say Capitol Hill staffers.
Sanctions compliance at British law firms remains woefully inadequate, with few companies willing to update client verification lists or upgrade aging software systems, say U.K. analysts and lawyers.
An increase in the number of individuals coming clean about secreting away money will mean greater government scrutiny of foreign bank accounts and complicit financial institutions, say tax attorneys.
The American Bar Association is crafting a voluntary best practices program for lawyers based on international anti-money laundering standards, say speakers at an organization conference in Washington, D.C.
Most U.K. lawyers have adjusted their policies and procedures to comply with the country's latest Money Laundering Regulations, but are unhappy about the burden of the new requirements, according to an online survey by the Law Society of England and Wales.
The Republic of the Netherlands must improve communication between agencies that investigate money laundering and terrorist financing and make better use of the suspicious transaction reporting information provided by financial institutions, according to a government audit report released Tuesday.
The Financial Action Task Force called notaries and registrars "the weakest link" in efforts to limit real estate laundering, in part, because some jurisdictions have yet to enforce AML requirements for those professionals.
Criminals will increasingly turn to real estate deals to commit fraud and launder their illegally obtained cash as long as the industry continues to operate free of anti-money laundering regulations and without uniform agent licensing rules, banking analysts and regulators say.
Proposed changes to AML-related laws and regulations, detailed in a Jan. 22 U.K. Treasury report, include vague definitions of beneficial owners and trusts and lack the clarity businesses and professionals need to meet their regulatory obligations, according to two professional associations.