At its June 2025 plenary meeting, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated its global watchlists for jurisdictions with deficiencies in anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and weapons proliferation controls. The British Virgin Islands and Bolivia were added to the list of “Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring,” while Croatia, Mali, and Tanzania were removed. Iran, North Korea, and Burma remain classified as “High-Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call for Action,” with Iran and North Korea facing countermeasures and Burma subject to enhanced due diligence. FinCEN advises U.S. financial institutions to review these changes when assessing risk and to ensure compliance with U.S. AML regulations, especially regarding correspondent accounts with foreign financial institutions and obligations under U.S. sanctions and the Bank Secrecy Act. Institutions must not engage in indiscriminate de-risking but are expected to apply risk-based controls and file Suspicious Activity Reports when warranted. Read more here.
Category Archives: International
FiSolve’s Weekly Financial and Regulatory Updates — June 20, 2025
From our friends at FiSolve, this week’s financial and regulatory news:
- Investment Adviser Consents to SEC Order for Custody Rule and Disclosure Violations
- Federal Court Orders Two Men and their Companies to Pay Over $25 Million for Digital Asset Fraud
- SEC Brings Action Against Publisher of Newsletter
- FCA Secures Convictions for Insider Dealing and Money Laundering
- The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its Annual Report for 2024
Read the full update here.
Celebrating the SEC at 90!
Good people, important problems and workable laws – celebrating the SEC at 90!
On July 17, PLI hosted The SEC at 90: A Celebration and Retrospective in our New York Conference Center. The program, chaired by longtime Securities faculty Clifford Kirsch, featured SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, author Diana Henriques (Taming the Street and The Wizard of Lies), former SEC Commissioners Robert J. Jackson, Jr. and Troy Paredes, and other expert panelists. Speakers discussed the SEC’s formation, challenges it faces, opportunities in the next 90 years and beyond, and where SEC practice has been, is, and will be.
ESG and Asset Managers. . .
A major focus of asset managers continues to be environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. In response to investor and regulatory demands, ESG considerations and related-disclosures figure more prominently in investment strategies and investment vehicles. To help you make sense of it all attend ESG Considerations for Asset Managers.
What to Expect from the SEC Under the Biden Administration
We know there will be new leadership at the SEC. President Biden has already nominated Gary Gensler as the new SEC Chair. Mr. Gensler, who served as chairman of the CFTC under Obama, was widely perceived as an aggressive CFTC chairman during the financial crisis. At that time, this aggressiveness eased progressives’ concerns that President Obama was appointing a Wall Street executive (Gensler is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs) to head the CFTC. Now, opposition to Gensler is more likely to come from conservatives, who may regard him as an overzealous enforcer.
Meanwhile, the Commission is being led by acting Chair Allison Herren Lee. Chair Lee is a long-time SEC enforcement attorney who also acted as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein before assuming her position as a commissioner in mid-2019. She is regarded as pro-enforcement and will be an ally of Mr. Gensler should he be confirmed as Chairman.
What will this new leadership mean for market participants?