Recent News

The agreement should lead to amendments to the AMLD, as well as determine the direction of the AMLA (the future regulator). There are several key points of the agreement reached. Source:https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/01/18/anti-money-laundering-council-and-parliament-strike-deal-on-stricter-rules/ Registers of beneficial owners will be reopened. In this way, members of the public with a legitimate interest, including the press and non-profit organizations, will be able to access the registers of beneficial owners of companies. Enhanced Due Diligence. The European Commission will conduct an EU-level assessment of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing and will prepare recommendations for Member States on the measures they should use when conducting risk assessments at national level. Expanding the circle of accountable entities. Sellers of cars, high-end aircraft and yachts, as well as works of art will become obligated entities. Other sectors that will be subject to customer due diligence and reporting obligations will include sellers of luxury goods such as precious metals, gemstones and watches. All cryptoasset...

Quantum computing startup Quantinuum has raised $300 million in funding. The company is now valued at $5 billion, and JPMorgan Chase led the funding round. Source:https://www.quantinuum.com/news/honeywell-announces-the-closing-of-300-million-equity-investment-round-for-quantinuum-at-5b-pre-money-valuation Additional participants included Mitsui & Co., Amgen and Honeywell, which remains the company's majority shareholder. This investment brings the total amount of capital raised by Quantinuum since its inception to about $625 million. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of the world's first universal fault-tolerant quantum computers. JPMorgan Chase has one of the world's most respected teams of specialists working on quantum technologies in the financial services industry and has been working with Quantinuum and its predecessor companies since 2020. Today, Quantinuum technologies are used by leading companies, including Airbus, BMW Group, Honeywell, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Mitsui and...

To support the neobank's rapid growth trajectory and global expansion into merchant acquiring, Jabil Inc. and Revolut continue their fruitful cooperation. Jabil's dedicated, pre-certified point-of-sale (POS) hardware platform, as well as other retail automation technologies transforming digital commerce, will soon be introduced. Source:https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/paytech/jabil-teams-with-fintech-leader-revolut-to-scale-development-and-production-of-innovative-mobile-payment-mpos-solution/ “Jabil has been instrumental in accelerating the time to market for Revolut Reader by providing critical product design, development, testing and certification capabilities,” said Alex Codina, general manager of merchant acquiring at Revolut. Starting in 2021, Jabil is partnering with Revolut to diversify its product portfolio, including the launch of Revolut Reader, a compact, dedicated hardware platform that allows merchants to accept payments in stores or on the...

We are talking about a tax of 2% on each transaction. But the decision to introduce the tax causes a lot of controversy among business, government and the banking sector, which consider it unlawful. The initiators of the tax are of the opinion that it will be able to increase state revenues. They believe that this way foreigners will transfer less money abroad and will spend it inside Bahrain. Estimates show that annual transfers abroad amount to $3.2 billion. The document is already under consideration by the Advisory...

The London-based firm was unable to conduct high-quality due diligence of a client in the shipping industry for transactions in the period 2014-2018. In a statement, the company said it "sincerely regrets any breaches of the requirements" which it said were identified in 2018 and reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Source:https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/law-firm-clyde-co-fined-635k-breaching-uk-money-laundering-rules-2024-01-11/ A spokesperson for Clyde & Co says the firm has now “significantly enhanced its risk management and compliance capabilities.” But this did not save her from a fine. SRA chief executive Paul Philip said the fine "should be a wake-up call to any firms that fail to meet their responsibilities to implement robust (anti-money laundering)...

The Ukrainian service for monitoring the registration data of Ukrainian companies and the court registry has published statistics on the registration of sole proprietorships and new companies in Ukraine in 2023. Source:https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/foponomics-2023-12 As of December 29, 2023, 304,048 new FOP registrations were registered in Ukraine. The number of new businesses increased by 7% compared to 2021. New natural persons mostly indicated activities in the field of IT, retail and wholesale trade, provision of other individual services and services for providing meals and drinks. The largest number of FOPs were opened in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv regions. As for new companies, the indicators remained lower than the pre-war level. In 2023, 37,297 new companies were registered, and in 2021 - 56,267. New cases were also mostly registered in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv...

One of the most important changes is the establishment of the beginning of the five-year period required to apply for citizenship. Now this period will begin from the moment of filing an application for a residence permit, and not from the moment of approval. It is believed that this amendment will save several years of waiting for those wishing to obtain citizenship. If the changes are approved by the president, they will come into force one month after publication in the official...

Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank is expanding its presence in Colombia after receiving government approval to operate a financial services company in the country. Source:https://international.nubank.com.br/company/nu-colombia-has-received-formal-approval-to-operate-a-financing-company-in-the-country/ "The company aims to become a leader in digital financial services in Colombia. "Obtaining this license is the result of months of hard team work and represents a fundamental step in our journey in Colombia, as it provides the right regulatory framework for the launch of Cuenta Nu and the further expansion of our product portfolio ." says Marcela Torres, CEO of Nu Colombia. Nubank, which has tens of millions of customers in its home market of Brazil and more than 4 million in Mexico, is betting big on Colombia, recently committing $150 million to the country over the next two...

Today we are looking at how different EU member countries are introducing language proficiency requirements into their rules for obtaining citizenship. In Hungary, it has long been necessary to know the language in order to restore citizenship by roots. Latvia has already begun to use the criterion of language proficiency even for a radical measure - deportation from the country. Bulgaria has developed a bill under which applicants will soon be able to face such a requirement. Cyprus has introduced changes to the law that requires a written language proficiency test to be passed for naturalization, extending the requirement even to previous applicants. Italy has also introduced a bill that will require those wishing to obtain citizenship to know the language at level B1 and above. Until last year, Portugal did not impose language requirements only for the repatriation of Sephardic Jews. The program is now completely closed. But in Romania, for now you only need to take an oath in the state...