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FATF removes Bulgaria, Congo, Ivory Coast and Monaco from grey list
On 30 October, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Bulgaria, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Monaco from its grey list, while retaining Vietnam due to its slow progress in implementing reforms.
The global financial crime watchdog removed the four countries from the grey list, recognising their progress in addressing deficiencies related to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and preventing the financing of proliferation that were identified during their mutual evaluations. However, Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar remain on the blacklist due to shortcomings in tackling financial crimes. FATF also urged Myanmar to take stronger action against widespread fraud and scam operations within the country. Blacklisting leads to significant economic consequences for countries, including frozen investments, increased compliance costs, and restricted access to the international banking and financial system.
Source: Reuters
CBUAE penalises foreign bank branch for AML shortcomings
The UAE Central Bank has fined a foreign bank’s branch Dh200 million, along with penalties for its senior executives, over repeated anti-money laundering, governance and compliance failures.
The penalty was imposed after regulatory examinations uncovered significant and repeated failures in the bank’s AML compliance, sanctions framework and internal controls. The central bank also fined the bank’s chief executive officer Dh500,000 and its head of compliance and money laundering reporting officer Dh300,000 for failing to meet their responsibilities. Beyond the financial penalties, the bank has been directed to undertake a mandatory remediation programme, which will be subject to independent validation to ensure that the identified deficiencies are addressed. The CBUAE has also ordered a reassessment of the suitability of the CEO and chief compliance officer for their respective positions.
Source: KHALEEJ TIMES
Bangladesh Bank urges finance companies to curb loan-based money laundering
The regulator has called on finance companies to tighten internal controls, identify beneficial owners, ensure risk-based management and enhance monitoring of lending activities ahead of the country's Mutual Evaluation.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB), finance companies should strengthen internal controls and adopt a risk-based approach to tackle anonymous lending, money laundering through loans, diversion of loan funds and related-party transactions. Deputy Governor Md Sarwar Hossain emphasised transparency, accountability and good governance in non-bank financial institutions while speaking at the two-day conference organised by BB’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Department. He also called for effective implementation of AML measures ahead of Bangladesh’s fifth-round Mutual Evaluation by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering in 2027-2028. BB Executive Director Md Muksuduzzaman stressed identifying clients’ actual beneficial owners, strengthening compliance frameworks and ensuring the independence of chief anti-money laundering compliance officers.
Source: BANGLADESH SANGBAD SANGSTHA
FINRA fines Webull $4.2 million for AML violations
The American brokerage firm was fined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for multiple violations, including failing to monitor suspicious transactions, verify customer identities, and implement an identity theft prevention program.
The regulator found that Webull approved more than 1,20,000 customer accounts without reasonably verifying clients’ identities, including accounts opened using photographs of scenic landscapes instead of government-issued identification. The firm also failed to detect and report suspicious transactions, including 473 unauthorised Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers involving more than $1.5 million, and did not adequately monitor potentially manipulative trading, fraudulent account takeovers and identity theft risks. The firm failed to detect certain red flags associated with identity theft and opened dozens of accounts for foreign nationals using the same IP address or device. Additionally, Webull failed to conduct reviews of execution quality available at competing market centres between February 2020 and May 2025. As part of the settlement, Webull has agreed to certify improvements to its AML and identity theft prevention programmes and appoint an independent consultant to review its best execution practices.
Source: FINRA
