On April 24, 2026, the European Union formally adopted its 20th package of restrictive measures against Russia (Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2026). This legislation marks a critical evolution in the bloc’s economic statecraft. While the early days of the conflict saw massive, blunt-force sanctions aimed at severing direct bilateral trade, the landscape has fundamentally […]
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In April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) significantly escalated its sanctions campaign against Iran by moving to not only designate maritime vessels and facilitators tied to their illicit oil trade, but by also directly targeting the commercial infrastructure sustaining that trade as part of a greater movement coined […]
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The current state of U.S. – Iran relations continue to be defined by a simultaneous series of escalations and follow-up negotiations. The primary issues at hand revolve around a dynamic sanctions campaign targeting Iran’s economic lifelines, continued maritime tension in and around the Strait of Hormuz impacting global trade, and ongoing though fragile, diplomatic efforts […]
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The United States government has stayed busy in its efforts to streamline domestic anti-money laundering and terrorism financing initiatives over recent months, with a newly announced proposal from a prominent regulatory body adding further to this trend. The latest announcement made by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) comes in regard to […]
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For years, U.S. policymakers and regulators have worked to close what has long been considered the most pervasive loophole in America’s otherwise staunch anti-money laundering framework: residential real estate purchases. Many believed that true change was on the horizon when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced its groundbreaking final Residential Real […]
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Yesterday, March 30, 2026, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that fundamentally alters the risk landscape for compliance professionals, crypto founders, and financial executives. By moving to fully implement the AML Whistleblower Improvement Act, FinCEN has established a framework to pay whistleblowers between 10% and 30% of collected […]
Read MoreIn early March, U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a statement informing American financial institutions that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that establishes international standards for anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPF) recently updated its […]
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The integration of artificial intelligence into anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) programs in the United States is no longer theoretical; it is actively reshaping how banks approach sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and customer due diligence (CDD). Yet with the great promise offered by ever-developing AI solutions within this space also comes growing risk: […]
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Rising geopolitical tensions are intensifying the pressure currently placed on both domestic and international financial institutions to strengthen their compliance safeguards, and nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly expanding Financial Technology (“FinTech”) sector. Financial intelligence recently released by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) suggests that global conflict and […]
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Last week, reports emerged that the United States government could once again be bringing forth new legislation with a sizeable impact on the domestic banking sector, namely with respect to the regulatory compliance sphere. The Trump Administration is reportedly exploring the announcement of a possible executive order that would require U.S. banks to collect citizenship […]
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