Commerzbank Fined £37.9m for Money Laundering Failures

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued its second-largest fine ever to Commerzbank London due to put anti-money laundering failures 2012 and 2017, which the regulator concluded had “created significant risk”. Although the FCA raised concerns three times during the period, the bank still failed to “take reasonable and effective steps to fix them.”

“Commerzbank London’s failings over several years created a significant risk that financial and other crime might be undetected,” said Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight. “Firms should recognise that AML controls are vitally important to the integrity of the UK financial system.”

The bank agreed to resolve the dispute at an early stage, which led to a 30% reduction in the fine.

Danish Regulator Reports Danske Bank for Market Abuse, Launches AML Enquiry

Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has reported the country’s largest lender, Danske Bank, for violating the prohibition on market manipulation. The regulator alleges that the bank facilitated “wash trades” (where the same entity both buys and sells securities) between 2016-19, as well as failing to properly monitor and report transactions. Danske’s chief compliance officer Philippe Vollot has admitted that the bank did not have “adequate market monitoring in place”. Last week, the FSA also announced that it would be carrying out a cross-sector AML inspection of transaction monitoring at Danske Bank.

An inspection report of Danske Bank published by the FSA in November 2019 found “significant weaknesses in its governance of IT security and risks.”

SimCorp Merges European Market Units

SimCorp, a provider of integrated investment management solutions and services including SimCorp Datacare (a data management solution for buyside pricing and reference data), is merging its Central Europe, Southern Europe and UK/Northern Europe/Middle East (UNM) market units, into one integrated EMEA unit. The move is designed to support SimCorp’s growth ambition, by developing closer client relationships across borders and achieving greater scale and agility in key business functions.

The new unit will be headed by Hans Otto Engkilde, the current Managing Director of SimCorp UK/Northern Europe/Middle East, who will lead best practice throughout the merged market unit, with a focus on growing SimCorp’s front office, data management, alternative investments, and client communication offerings.

mBank Selects Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for Risk Management

mBank, Poland’s fourth largest banking group based on assets, has chosen Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for Risk Management as its risk software. The mobile digital bank operates across three markets in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The bank will specifically use the Wolters Kluwer’s solution for Asset and Liability Management (ALM) as well as Market Risk and profitability (Funds Transfer Pricing).

Finantix Partners with Capita Consulting on Digital Solutions

The Finantix Product Suite is a modular, API-driven suite of products that can be integrated with existing IT systems. Capita Consulting will become a Finantix certified strategic implementation partner in the UK. In this role Capita Consulting will help clients in the private banking and wealth management sectors design and launch a Finantix platform tailored to their needs. As well as helping Finantix clients select the right mix of capabilities for their needs, Capita Consulting will also advise Finantix on product enhancements across the suite of solutions offered to the UK market.

Shield Joins Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner Program

Specialist RegTech provider Shield has been selected by Microsoft to join its One Commercial Partner (OCP) program, which provides best-of-breed Cloud-based solutions. The partnership means the Shield platform is now available on Microsoft’s App Source and Azure Marketplace.

“With increased remote working and ongoing disruption to many business operations because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, many firms are looking at their options for maintaining regulatory compliance and surveillance during these challenging times,” says Eran Noam, Global VP of Sales and Marketing at Shield. “As an early supporter of the Microsoft platform in the RegTech sphere, Shield is perfectly placed to help regulated firms meet these needs, as they switch to Microsoft Teams as a key part of their journey towards cloud services.”

ONE Appointed by Maitland to Provide Compliance Technology

ONE regulatory has been appointed by global advisory and family offices firm Maitland to implement R-ONE, a cloud-based compliance technology and workflow tool. ONE group provides fund management solutions including third-party Management Company, Regulatory & Compliance Advisory, Corporate Secretary and Governance Technology solutions to asset, wealth and fund managers through offices in Luxembourg, London and Zurich.

MirrorWeb Joins Microsoft Scale-up Programme

UK-based web archiving and monitoring solutions provider MirrorWeb has been selected to join the Microsoft ScaleUp programme, an initiative that gives a small number of high-growth companies access to Microsoft’s sales, marketing and technical support. To be successful, companies must be start-ups or growth enterprises at the forefront of emerging technologies, and with the potential to tap into newer markets. Fewer than 2% of applications to the program currently succeed.MirrorWeb helps marketing and compliance professionals meet regulatory requirements by capturing immutable records of their digital content and archiving their web and social media channels. Clients include Liontrust Asset Management, Zurich Insurance Group, Tesco Bank, Bank of England and the Treasury.

Wolters Kluwer Updates OneSumX, Signs ING in China

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business has released an update for its OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting solution to allow clients to meet the Second-Generation People’s Bank of China Enterprise Credit Reference Submission, an update to the country’s credit reference system first launched in January 2020, which makes a broad range of changes to reporting and information collection procedures for personal and enterprise credit data. ING’s China business has chosen OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting to meet the new requirements.

Wolters Kluwer Updates OneSumX, Signs ING in China

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business has released an update for its OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting solution to allow clients to meet the Second-Generation People’s Bank of China Enterprise Credit Reference Submission, an update to the country’s credit reference system first launched in January 2020, which makes a broad range of changes to reporting and information collection procedures for personal and enterprise credit data. ING’s China business has chosen OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting to meet the new requirements.