Recent News

On July 19, the Federal Reserve Board issued a $186 million fine for Deutsche Bank's failure to comply with regulator directives to improve AML mechanisms and sanctions compliance. It also found that Deutsche Bank had made insufficient progress in correcting the situation in accordance with the 2015 and 2017 orders. Deutsche Bank also maintained deficient internal controls and anti-money laundering management processes related to its previous relationship with the Estonian branch of Danske...

The new program is mostly aimed at IT specialists who plan to live in the Czech Republic but work for foreign companies. Source:https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/czech-govt-greenlights-residence-permit-program-for-digital-nomads%20 Currently, the program is limited to eight countries. Citizens of Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, Great Britain, USA and Taiwan will be able to participate. An IT specialist usually works on several projects in different parts of the world at the same time. Due to the nature of their work, digital nomads cannot be in classic labor-legal relations both due to the one-time nature of assigned tasks and from the point of view of possible conflicts of several labor relations and related duties. The program applies to employees of a foreign company who work long-term remotely in the Czech Republic with the help of telecommunications. In this case, the foreigner remains in labor relations with his foreign commercial company all the time and does not enter into labor relations in the Czech Republic. The government's statement does not contain information on minimum wage...

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently published a global regulatory framework for crypto assets to promote comprehensiveness and international consistency in regulatory and supervisory approaches. Source:https://www.fsb.org/2023/07/fsb-finalises-global-regulatory-framework-for-crypto-asset-activities/ The Global Standards Body is concerned that further development of ties to traditional finance could increase the spillover effect of crypto assets on the wider financial system. Since the events of the past year have highlighted the inherent volatility and structural vulnerability of crypto assets and related players. The framework consists of two separate sets of recommendations: Recommendations for monitoring the activities and markets of crypto assets. Reviewed high-level recommendations on regulation, oversight of "global stablecoin" agreements. The recommendations focus on addressing financial stability risks and do not fully cover all specific categories of risks associated with dealing with crypto assets. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are treated as digitized central bank liabilities, are not subject to these...

On June 30, 2023, a law came into force in Latvia simplifying tax control and audit procedures. The main goal of the changes is to simplify and optimize the process of checking taxpayers, as well as to increase trust and cooperation between them and Valsts ieņēmumu dienests (VID), the Latvian State Revenue Service. Ultimately, four types of tax audits should be replaced by just one. And voluntary payment of taxes is aimed at reducing penalties. A new type of audit involves the control by the tax service of only specific inconsistencies, as well as obtaining explanations from the entrepreneur. The taxpayer is given the opportunity to correct the discrepancy. In case of non-compliance, payment is made in the form of a tax control invoice, which includes unpaid tax and late fees. After tax control, the penalty is usually not applied. The exception is illegal manipulations with cash registers. In this case, only the fine is included in the bill. All payments according to the invoice issued by the tax authorities: tax, reduced delay and interest must be paid to the state budget within a year from the date of conclusion of the contract. But at the same time, the taxpayer...

The operator of the international interbank information transfer system Swift and several international banks have successfully completed the first pilot project for real-world processing of instant payments between different currency areas. Source:https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/swift-iberpay-pilot-instant-payments-across-currency-zones/ Iberpay and leading Spanish banks BBVA, Santander and CaixaBank conducted the first European test of the innovative service ahead of the European Payments Council's (EPC's) One-Leg-Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme that officially went into effect on November 28. During the pilot phase of this service, dozens of real-world payments originating from banks in other currency areas (National Australia Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Itaú Unibanco in Brazil and Lloyds Banking Group in the UK) and sent via the Swift GPI Instant service were processed, settled and credited to the account of the final recipient customer in a matter of seconds. As part of this pilot initiative, for the first time in the world, the instant transfer platform of the 24/7 real-time Spanish payment processor Iberpay was integrated...

The Office of Financial Sanctions Enforcement (OFSI) helps ensure that financial sanctions are properly understood, applied and enforced in the United Kingdom. At the moment, OFSI is experiencing high demand to consider applications for new licenses and amendments to existing licenses. Source:https://ofsi.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/12/an-update-to-our-licensing-process-returning-incomplete-applications/ When applying for a specific license or an amendment to an existing specific license, applicants must provide evidence in support of the application and demonstrate that all criteria for the relevant license ground have been met. If there is insufficient information or evidence in an application, the OFSI General Guidelines state that "incomplete applications will not be considered and will be returned to the applicant for resubmission". To reduce delays and ensure timely service to all applicants, OFSI will resume the return of applications that were not properly completed at the time of receipt. An incomplete application is an application that is missing key information, such as an adequate explanation of why the licensing objective applies. Applicants will be able to...

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published "guidelines" for stablecoin issuers as part of the MiCA regulatory framework. The document calls on companies to prepare businesses to comply with the legislation, which will come into force on June 30, 2024. “The announcement is intended to encourage timely preparatory action for MiCA to mitigate the risks of potentially disruptive and disruptive business model changes at a later stage, as well as to promote convergence with regulators and ensure consumer protection,” the press release said. According to the proposal of the regulator, organizations issuing stablecoins are required to: ensure full disclosure of information to clients; present a public business model; establish an effective management system, including risk management; establish a buyout mechanism and sufficient reserves; register with the EBA. The recommendations are still voluntary, but before the law comes into force, protection of investors is not guaranteed either. The EBA emphasized that “prior to the entry into force of the MiCA, stablecoins and e-money tokens are not regulated instruments, therefore consumers do...

Citi Bank запустив цифрову клієнтську платформу для клієнтів комерційного банку, об'єднавши всі продукти та послуги в одному місці. Source:https://t.me/uafic/2002 CitiDirect Commercial Banking обіцяє надати клієнтам консолідовану картину їхніх відносин на 360° за такими напрямками, як грошові кошти, кредити, торгівля, валютні операції, обслуговування та реєстрація. Система вже працює в США, де нею активно користується понад 2/3 клієнтської бази, а в другій половині року її випробують у Гонконзі, Індії, Сінгапурі та Великій Британії. За словами представників банку, CitiDirect дає змогу отримувати дані, необхідні для прийняття рішень та ефективного управління повсякденними...

The think tank Atlantic Council has released a major report on central bank digital currencies (i.e. CBDC). He notes that almost all countries have stepped up efforts to establish CBDC systems, and some of them are already at the stage of completion of this process. According to the report, 130 countries are considering implementing CBDCs. This is a fairly significant increase compared to May 2020, when only 35 countries worked in this direction. Together, these 130 countries produce 98% of the world's GDP. Among this list are 19 countries from the G20. The only exception is the United States, where the use of retail CBDC remains in question, especially against the backdrop of protests in many states. However, the US is advancing on wholesale (banking) CBDC. There are currently 12 international CBDC wholesale projects. Other G7 banks, including England and Japan, are developing CBDC prototypes and consulting with the public and private sectors on financial...