Oversight

Brazil’s central bank unveiled long-awaited rules for virtual assets on Monday, extending anti–money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) obligations to crypto firms and classifying fiat-pegged crypto transactions as foreign-exchange operations, Reuters reported. 

A third of inspected law firms in England and Wales are breaching anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, according to a report on new figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). 

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase €21.5 million for failing to properly monitor transactions, including activity potentially linked to child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes. 

Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin has imposed a record €45-million penalty on JPMorgan Chase for shortcomings in anti-money laundering (AML) controls, the Financial Times reported, citing the supervisory body. 

Federal Reserve officials plan to shrink the regulatory body’s bank-supervision workforce by roughly 30% by the end of next year, leaving roughly 350 employees in the Supervision & Regulation (S&R) division, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Australia’s financial crimes watchdog has fined a second crypto ATM provider in a widening crackdown on machines increasingly linked to money laundering and scams, the country’s ABC News reported. 

Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) says it is hitting capacity limits as banks and other firms flood the agency with record numbers of suspicious activity reports, according to SWI swissinfo.ch.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has settled its last remaining enforcement action tied to Wells Fargo’s 2016 fake-accounts scandal without imposing a fine, Banking Dive reported.

Canada’s financial intelligence agency has fined Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptomus nearly C$177 million, saying the firm failed to report thousands of transactions that may have involved sanctions evasion and money laundering tied to fraud, ransomware and child sexual abuse material.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has filed a High Court lawsuit against crypto exchange HTX, alleging the platform unlawfully promoted cryptoasset services to consumers in breach of the country’s financial promotions regime, the Financial Times reported.