IMF warns banks on risks in Africa

From Business Day -

“The rapid expansion of South African banks into the rest of Africa, as they chase growth, may increase risk to the financial sector, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Other African countries tend to have weak rules for money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, raising the risk to SA, the IMF said after the completion of an extensive assessment of SA’s financial system earlier this year.

As a member of the Group of 20, SA agrees to this IMF Financial Sector Assessment Programme every five years. The assessment is intended to help countries identify risks to the financial system and implement policies to deal with financial shocks and contagion.”

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Technology Solutions That Drive Revenue Growth

From Bank Director

Four financial technology providers share what technologies are being implemented to help banks improve organic growth.

Next out of the block

From Banking Technology

“There has been so much coverage of the Bitcoin phenomenon that you might think that most people (at least in the financial technology world) have a grasp of how it works and what the key issues are.

Once you start talking to those who have been following it a bit longer, however, the conversation can start to take on a geeky one-upmanship aspect pretty quickly: one party will say Bitcoin is “just the poster child” for a whole set of crypto currencies, the other will cite the Dutch tulip and dismiss them all as speculative bubbles, which the next will deny by pointing out that the US Treasury has deemed Bitcoin equivalent to property for tax purposes.

The conversation will spiral on through the suitability of crypto currencies for legitimate business, one side claiming that their ‘anonymous’ nature means that they are suitable only for money laundering and other dubious activities, the other pointing out that the underlying mechanism is far from anonymous. At the Money20/20 conference in the US last year, one representative of a US law enforcement agency expressed a preference for money launderers to use Bitcoin because they would be easier to catch given the audit trail built into the blockchain that is at the heart of all crypto currencies.”

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Money laundering moving to RMB as US cracks down

Banking Technology

“Money launderers will increasingly move away from the US dollar to the renminbi as US authorities continue to crack down on international banks’ AML systems. The shift will have consequences for London’s aspirations to become a global centre for RMB clearing and settlement.

According to Freddie McMahon, director of strategy & innovation at Anomaly42, a specialist in AML and terrorist financing, there is already evidence that criminals are moving their activities into other currencies.”

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UK proposes cutting Russia off from SWIFT international banking system

From Russia Beyond the Headlines

“In light of the expansion of sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, the UK has proposed that Russia be blocked from accessing the SWIFT international banking system. In the opinion of analysts, this step is unlikely to be taken. However, in the worst-case scenario, Russia and China will begin development of an alternative system.

The United Kingdom is to insist that the European Union block Russia’s access to the SWIFT banking system as part of a new round of sanctions. According to the Bloomberg news agency, this was officially announced by the British government. SWIFT currently links more than 10,000 banking and finance organizations in 210 countries around the world, and there are more than 600 participants, including the Bank of Russia, in the Russian community.”

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The Cyber-Terror Bank Bailout: They're Already Talking About It, and You May Be on the Hook

From Bloomberg

“Bankers and U.S. officials have warned that cyber-terrorists will try to wreck the financial system’s computer networks. What they aren’t saying publicly is that taxpayers will probably have to cover much of the damage.

Even if customers don’t lose money from a hacking assault on JPMorgan Chase & Co., the episode is a reminder that banks with the most sophisticated defenses are vulnerable. Treasury Department officials have quietly told bank insurers that in the event of a cataclysmic attack, they would activate a government backstop that doesn’t explicitly cover electronic intrusions, two people briefed on the talks said.”

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