Xenia Compliance

AUSTRAC recently initiated legal proceedings against Commonwealth Bank of Australia on CBA’s alleged systematic breaches of its AML obligations. The incident has attracted a lot of media attention. Articles have merged in the past a few days blaming all the big banks for being involved in money laundering activities. Before we stamp all banks as the bad guys, I’d like to shed some light on the banks and their AML obligations.

2014 is an eventful year when it comes to compliance. This article outlines the most significant regulatory events and updates of 2014 from the perspective of CFDs and FX providers. It should be noted that these events are relevant to a lot of other Australian Financial Services Licensees and Reporting Entities (REs) under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).

If you think you only have wholesale clients and so do not need to worry about AML stuff,you are wrong! This article aims to bust this myth. It also explains how reporting entities that deal with wholesale clients need to be more vigilant in carrying out their KYC procedures.

AFCA appears to take the view that client suitability is an obligation imposed on OTC CFDs issuers, and a failure to conduct adequate client suitability assessment may result in an issuer’s liability for the losses incurred by retail clients. In this article, we share our observations on this issue.

It is not uncommon for company senior executives to shake their heads at the mention of the word ‘fraud’. “No, we don’t have that problem.” “Our people wouldn’t do that.” “Surely the procedures will take care of that” are among the typical responses.

2014 is an eventful year when it comes to compliance. This article outlines the most significant regulatory events and updates of 2014 from the perspective of CFDs and FX providers. It should be noted that these events are relevant to a lot of other Australian Financial Services Licensees and Reporting Entities (REs) under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) (the ‘AML/CTF Act’, the ‘Act’) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No.1) (Cth) (the ‘AML/CTF Rules’, the ‘Rules’) impose various obligations on persons captured by the definition of ‘reporting entity’ under section 5 of the Act. A reporting entity refers to a person that offers one or more designated services as defined in section 6 of the Act.

Fraud cases flood the media these days and financial losses suffered by the victims can easily range anywhere between a few dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The figures are much bigger for businesses. We become increasingly vulnerable to fraud due to the advances in technology and the easy access to personal information.

In comparison, however, a reporting entity’s ongoing Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (‘AML/CTF’) obligations do not appear to have received sufficient attention. This article aims to shed some light on one of the ongoing obligations – the transaction monitoring program, which is often under-implemented and misunderstood.

Xenia Compliance Consulting Pty. Ltd. was established by Xiaoshu Liu to provide organisations with practical and quality compliance solutions to ensure that they are compliant with their Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) obligations and the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) conditions.

Read our resources section to know more about AFSL Compliance Services and AML(Anti Money Laundering )/CTF compliance matters.

Read our resources section to know more about AFSL Compliance Services and AML(Anti Money Laundering )/CTF compliance matters. We can tailor our AML/CTF and AFSL compliance solutions to suit your needs, regardless. Whether you’re a newly established business or a larger organization.