Sanctions compliance – a concerted effort

For further information about the SWIFT (www.swift.com) sanctions testing service, contact Nicolas Stuckens (nicolas. stuckens@swift.com) or Ian Horobin (ihorobin@omnicision. com, www.omnicision.com) Report by Timon Molloy.

Sanctions breaches are overshadowing anti-money laundering (AML) failings currently as one major financial institution after another settles for a multi-million dollar fine and costly remediation with US authorities. [1] Standard Chartered was forced to plead for its New York banking licence over wire-stripping Iranian identifiers in August [2] and HSBC was challenged about similar behaviour in a highly critical report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in July. [3] Firms, already scrambling to address the complexities of multiplying and expanding lists, are, therefore, having to step up their efforts and under pressure to show that their filters are working. Fortunately, new help is at hand, through a central, industry source .