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Russia Issues New Standards For Payment Acceptance Operators
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) has published new mandatory standards for payment acceptance operators in the financial market.
Effective November 17, 2024, the directive requires self-regulatory organisations (SROs) overseeing payment operators to establish two core standards: one for regulating payment acceptance operations; and another to safeguard the rights of financial service recipients.
This action follows other payments-related initiatives from the central bank, including draft regulation regarding the accepting of electronic payments in October.
Nepal Taps Alipay+ For Cross-Border Payments Connectivity
Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has partnered with Ant International to launch a new cross-border payments bridge between NepalPay QR and Alipay+.
The partnership will enable travellers from ten countries and territories to use a domestic e-wallet or bank app to make payments to more than 875,000 merchants via the NepalPay QR code network.
The ten countries and territories are Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea.
The launch follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by NCHL and Ant International in May 2024.
Vietnamese Central Bank To Launch New AML Department In 2025
The Vietnamese government has confirmed that a new Department of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) will commence operations in January 2025.
The new department will operate under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), and will lead the coordination of AML and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts across ministries and state agencies.
Previously, the department was a smaller unit within the SBV’s Banking Supervision Agency, tasked with assisting the chief inspector in combating money laundering.
The SBV’s Forecasting and Statistics and Monetary and Financial Stabilisation departments will also be merged into one unit known as the Department of Forecasting, Statistics and Monetary and Financial Stabilisation.
A new Department of Banking Inspection and Supervision will also be added under the SBV’s Banking Supervision Agency; however, the Banking Supervision Agency will no longer perform AML/CFT duties.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority Penalises Fubon Bank For AML Failures
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has imposed a HK$4m enforcement penalty on Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (FBHK) for breaching the jurisdiction's anti-money laundering (AML) regulations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO).
The action follows FBHK’s self-reported lapses in transaction monitoring, which prompted the HKMA to investigate the bank's systems for compliance.
Between April 2019 and July 2022, the bank reportedly failed to maintain adequate procedures to monitor customer relationships effectively.
Key issues included poor management of system changes, inadequate follow-up on alert decreases and insufficient review of transaction monitoring scope.
FBHK also neglected to scrutinise certain customer transactions and missed updating due diligence reviews after specific "trigger events".
“The AMLO requires banks to put in place effective procedures for continuous monitoring of their business relationships with customers so that potential money laundering and terrorist financing activities are detected early," said Raymond Chan, enforcement chief at the HKMA.
"When changes are introduced to existing monitoring systems, bank management should ensure that the scope of surveillance covers all relevant transactions and any identified deficiencies are followed up promptly.”
