The Finance Sector provides a crucial backbone to the European Economy and -like many other sectors- its increasing dependency on ICT Infrastructures, Providers and their Supply Chain. The importance of ICT Security and Resilience supporting the Finance Sector grew considerably and the objective of protecting automated Inter-Banking transactions and more generally all types of Communications is altogether more critical and complex at the same time.

A stable Financial System in Europe is however the underlying foundation for Economic stability; and the reliance on IT is now life critical for the entire Sector.

Technical Cooperation between the key actors of the Finance Sector at pan-European level becomes an urgent need as the sector faces stronger and larger scale challenges. The following effects of the current silo approach for the protection of the Banks and Finance Institutions presents many inconveniences, such as:

• • • the Implementation of a multitude of security and technical standards, difficult to maintain;
    • the Loss of Interoperability;
    • Imposibility to implement Safe Harbouring, Mutual Aid Assistance;
    • Hosting of more System types, less secure;
    • General Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks.

  NIS support to Financial Resilience
  Twitter :  @enisa_eu

Financial crises | The Economist

Gangsters’ paradise: Germany

Lax laws draw criminal gangs from around the world to Germany. Constrained by strict regulation and mind-boggling bureaucracy, police are struggling to fight crime.

Germany is one of the first choices for gangs worldwide when it comes to washing dirty money, as a Sicilian official recently confirmed. “I’d invest in Germany,” said Robert Scarpinato, Palermo’s public prosecutor…..Money Laundering

Rodrigo Matos
www.w-t-w.org/en/rodrigo-de-matos
www.rodrigocartoon.com

Elizabeth Warren‏: My office found that Rusal America Corp – a subsidiary of a sanctioned company controlled by a Russian oligarch & Putin ally – got an exemption from @realDonaldTrump’s aluminum tariffs days after he met with Putin in Helsinki. I asked the Trump Admin why.

Hundreds of companies have asked the Trump administration for a special break from its sweeping aluminum tariffs. Few have succeeded. One that managed to get an exemption is a Russian firm currently subject to Treasury Department sanctions.

How Rusal America — a branch of a Russian metals giant controlled by an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin — managed to win an exclusion highlights the chaotic and unwieldy process surrounding President Trump’s tariffs……NYTimes.com

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering is an intergovernmental organisation, consisting of 41 member jurisdictions, focused on ensuring that its members effectively implement the international standards against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing related to weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to its enormous human cost, human trafficking is estimated to be one of the most profitable proceeds generating crime in the world, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that forced labour generates USD 150.2 billion per year. While in the past, many aspects of the crime went ‘unseen’, there is now an increased understanding of the breadth and gravity of human trafficking, particularly with respect to domestic human trafficking and human trafficking for labour exploitation. Human trafficking is also one of the fastest growing forms of international crime. The increased displacement and vulnerability of people in, and around, conflict zones increases instances of human trafficking, including potential involvement by opportunistic terrorist organisations…. Human-Trafficking-2018

Rodrigo de Matos
www.w-t-w.org/en/rodrigo-de-matos/

Booklet 5 focuses on the specific issues related to drug use among women, including the social and health consequences of drug use and access to treatment by women with drug use disorders; it also discusses the role played by women in the drug supply chain.

The Panama Papers
Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens.

A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.

The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.

The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.

These are among the findings of a yearlong investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations….. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Not only Switzerland as an international financial center is exposed to huge risks from financial crime. This is increased by outdated transaction monitoring systems, inadequate approaches to Know Your Customer and poorly determined risk appetites…..
Clarity on Financial Crime in Banking/KPMG

 Women Networks Fight Against Corruption and MoneyLaundering

A US report says UAE’s capital is a haven
for war-profiteers, financiers of ‘terror’ and drug traffickers.

Aljazeera reports:  With its skyscrapers, luxury villas and a high concentration of millionaires and billionaires, Dubai’s rise to global city and business hub has captured the world’s attention.

It’s one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) an absolute monarchy long ruled by the Al Maktoum family.

The rapid development of the city has made it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

But the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS) has obtained leaked property data from the city-state.

And it has found that those who make money out of wars, who finance “terror”, or are involved in drug trafficking use Dubai’s real estate market as a haven for money laundering.

Dubai real estate market haven for money launderers

Property investigated in US report worth more than $100m in places such as Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah…
Sandcastles by the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies

Dubai has reportedly become a money-laundering paradise