Roberta Holland

Corruption is affecting every member state in the European Union and costing the bloc €120 billion a year, according to the first-ever EU Anti-Corruption Report, released this week by the European Commission. While the 28 member states have undertaken recent anti-corruption measures, results vary widely due to factors like unaddressed systemic issues, less than vigorous […]

The United Kingdom’s banking regulator this week fined Standard Bank PLC £7.6 million for lapses in its anti-money laundering policies, marking the first AML sanctions related to commercial banking in Britain. The shortcomings involved the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) procedures in dealing with corporate customers connected to politically exposed persons, according to the U.K.’s Financial […]

The European Commission last week hired the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and Paris-based Mazars Group to review the use of international accounting standards in the European Union. The two groups jointly will assess the impact of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), now in its eighth year of use in […]

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released last week a new set of risk management guidelines to help banks implement policies to guard against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The guidelines cover risk assessment, management and mitigation, monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting of suspected money laundering (ML) and financing of terrorism (FT). The Swiss-based […]

Sweeping regulatory changes in financial markets were agreed to this week by European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, after almost four years of negotiations and debate on the issue. Known as the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID), the changes include a new, regulated category of trading venues, greater transparency and investor protections, […]

The European Union had a second straight record-breaking year in antitrust fines, levying €1.9 billion in fines in 2013, according to a global survey released this week. International law firm Allen & Overy reviewed fines levied last year by seven jurisdictions, including the EU and the United States, and found that the EU led the […]

German officials are in a dispute with the European Commission over which competition authority should have jurisdiction over the planned acquisition of one building materials firm by another. The European Commission this week rejected a request from Germany to refer the matter to its national competition authority, according to information released by the European Commission. […]

The European Commission is backing away from plans to force big banks to ring-fence their lending business from higher-risk trading activities, according to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times. The Financial Times reported this week that the proposal emanating from Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier does not contain a mandatory separation, and that […]