Navigating regulatory compliance in the fast-paced crypto markets is challenging. The MiCAR Compliance Toolkit provides you with the practical steps needed to help you prepare for the new regulatory regime for cryptoassets in the EU.
Please join Baker McKenzie and ICPA for a fireside chat with Lawrence Scheinert, Associate Director for Enforcement, Compliance, and Analysis at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
During the discussion, Lawrence will outline OFAC’s enforcement program and priorities. He will also share his insights on enforcement actions, multilateral coordination and cooperation with other US regulators such as BIS, FinCEN, and the DOJ, impact of enforcement actions on non-US companies, among other topics.
Please join us on 18 and 19 June 2024 for this informative briefing to gain up-to-date insights that could significantly impact your company’s compliance strategies and operations.
On 10 April 2024, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA), Hong Kong’s highest court, delivered its judgment in Tam Sze Leung & Ors v Commissioner of Police [2024] HKCFA 8, affirming the validity of the ‘No Consent Regime’ (“Regime”) of the Hong Kong Police (“Police”). The Regime encompassed a practice of issuing “Letters of No Consent” (LNCs) to financial institutions for customer accounts that contain suspected proceeds of crime, thereby triggering informal freezes on these accounts.
On 15 May 2024, the National Securities Commission (CNV) issued General Resolution No. 1002/2024 (“Resolution”), modifying the regime applicable to promotion and advice within the framework of the public offering of securities.
The European Parliament has adopted the new AML/CFT legislative package, which aims to comprehensively strengthen the EU rules to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, including the establishing of a new EU authority to supervise directly the riskiest entities, an EU limit on large cash payments up to EUR 10,000, and more detailed, directly applicable rules regarding customer due diligence and beneficial ownership.
The Superintendence of Companies, through its External Circular No. 100-000003 of 23 April 2024 (hereinafter the “Circular”), extended the deadlines for the Chambers of Commerce and Foreign Non-Profit Entities (in its acronym in Spanish “ESALs”) to implement the Integral Self-Control and Risk Management System of money laundering, terrorism financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and Business Transparency and Ethics Programs. The new deadline is on 31 May 2025.
On 14 May 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published guidelines on fund names using environmental, social and governance (ESG) or sustainability-related terms. The main purpose of these guidelines is to enhance investor protection with regard to funds named in ways suggesting an investment focus in companies that meet certain sustainability standards. Against this backdrop and after the public consultation launched on 18 November 2022, ESMA clarifies what investors may expect in terms of policies, practices and characteristics of funds consistent with sustainability standards, as also the circumstances where a fund name with ESG or sustainability-related terms is indicative of unfair, unclear or misleading practices.
In April 2024, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) issued five Guidelines on Customer Due Diligence (“Guidelines”), tailored for five categories of businesses, to elaborate on the recommended practices under the Ministerial Regulation on Customer Due Diligence, B.E 2563 (2020). The new Guidelines, issued in April 2024, target certain businesses classified as “reporting entities” under sections 3 and 16 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, B.E. 2542.
In a recent decision, the Superintendence of Companies determined that an Excel-based risk matrix of the Self-Control and Integral Management System of Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Financing of the Proliferation of matrixes and of the Business Transparency and Ethics Program was insufficient because it did not allow to individualize, measure, assess and mitigate the risks identified.
On 10 April 2024, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA), Hong Kong’s highest court, delivered its judgment in Tam Sze Leung & Ors v Commissioner of Police [2024] HKCFA 8, affirming the validity of the ‘No Consent Regime’ (“Regime”) of the Hong Kong Police. The Regime encompassed a practice of issuing “Letters of No Consent” to financial institutions for customer accounts that contain suspected proceeds of crime, thereby triggering informal freezes on these accounts.