Oversight Agency

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians as well as on members of Hamas, breaking a months-long deadlock after Hungary’s new government lifted a veto put in place under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday issued an alert urging financial institutions to step up their detection of money laundering, sanctions evasion, and digital-asset transfers tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Australia’s financial intelligence agency on Friday launched two supervisory campaigns targeting the country’s virtual assets sector, stepping up oversight of crypto businesses ahead of sweeping AML reforms, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) said in a statement.

Artificial intelligence is amplifying the cyber threats facing the global financial system and could trigger a system-wide shock unless regulators and banks build stronger defenses, the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday.

Monaco’s financial markets watchdog has fined UBS €6 million for “numerous serious breaches” in anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing controls.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military-controlled conglomerate, one of its top executives, and a Cuban nickel-mining joint venture, in the first round of designations under a new executive order targeting the island-nation. 

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on Iraq’s deputy oil minister, three senior leaders of Iran-aligned militias, and four Iraqi companies, accusing them of diverting Iraqi oil to benefit Iran’s government and its proxy forces.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Singapore from its enhanced follow-up list but the city-state’s beneficial-ownership safeguards, money-laundering prosecutions, and proliferation-financing controls are still falling short of the risks it faces as one of the world’s largest financial centers.

China’s top financial regulator has quietly told the country’s largest banks to suspend new loans to five Chinese refiners recently sanctioned by the United States over their ties to Iranian oil, even as Beijing publicly orders companies to ignore those same U.S. measures.

Tabcorp, Australia’s biggest listed bookmaker, disclosed that the country’s financial-crimes watchdog AUSTRAC has opened a formal investigation into whether it was complying with anti-money-laundering (AML) rules and properly monitoring its customers.