Insights

Your window into the complex world of compliance and regulations

Our industry experts regularly spend time with lawmakers, regulators and industry participants to get to the heart of regulatory issues. We deliver our expert insights across multiple media to ensure timely delivery of information to meet your everyday needs.

From quick blog insights through to industry events, we provide you with the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to help you make the right business decisions, staying compliant and gaining a competitive advantage.

EBA Slams Fintechs Over Lax Compliance In New AML Risk Assessment

In its latest risk assessment, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has warned that poor practices and a lack of experience at fintechs, including payments and crypto firms, are undermining efforts to tackle financial crime.
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AI Joint Venture Demonstrates UAE’s Digital and Financial Ambitions

The Middle Eastern state continues to harness financial services as an asset, moving to modernise its payments infrastructure through a public-private initiative involving the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).
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Brazil Minister Rattles Industry With Regulatory Remorse

The government minister responsible for Brazil’s federal betting regulator is considering stricter rules on advertising and online casino games and says he would even outlaw online gambling altogether if given the opportunity.
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Romanian Government Eyes Legislation To Decentralise Gambling Licensing

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has announced that his government plans to propose a draft legislation that will enable municipal authorities to decide on licences for local gambling outlets.
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News In Brief: December 20-December 24, 2021

Resort casino zones could come to Azerbaijan, Dutch operator warned over match bets and Ohio sports betting is approved.
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Gambling

EuReCa! European AML/CTF Database Unveiled

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has revealed more details about its central database on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) in the EU, a key tool for coordinating efforts to counter illicit finance in the bloc.
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Payments

Pandora’s Box And The Biggest AML Trends in 2021

2021 has tested the anti-money laundering (AML) regimes of world economies, shedding light on gaps in the existing frameworks and forcing legislators to cast the net wider to fight the flow of illicit money.
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Payments

First ACHs Move Technical Accounts To TIPS

In a major milestone for instant payments across the EU, the European Central Bank has announced the first wave of automated clearing houses (ACH) to move their technical accounts to its low-value instant settlement system.
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Payments

Study Shows Surge in Older Online Gamblers During Pandemic

Hundreds of thousands more people over 65 in the UK are gambling online than at the start of the pandemic, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has said.
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Gambling

2021: The Year Indian Gaming Joined The Sports Betting Gold Rush

As uncertain as the future of the Seminole Compact may be, this historic gambling agreement in Florida marked the end of tribal ambivalence toward sports betting and the consequences for both Indian and commercial gaming promise to be seismic.
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Gambling

NSW Crime Commission To Probe Slots Money Laundering

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state crime commission and the state’s gaming watchdog have announced a joint inquiry into slot machine money laundering, just weeks after a government investigator flagged large-scale washing of funds in pubs and clubs.
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Gambling

Green Finance Data Of Growing Interest To Central Banks, Says Study

Central banks are increasingly assessing sustainable finance in pursuing their core mandates, a survey by the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics has found.
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Payments

Buy Now, Pay Later, 2021’s Booming Old-New Payment Trend

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has grown to be one of the biggest trends in payments in 2021. VIXIO reviews the changes the booming market experienced in 2021 and how market participants and regulators reacted to these opportunities and risks.
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Payments

A Warning Shot Across The Bow - J.P. Morgan Pays $125m After Using WhatsApp To Do Securities Business

J.P. Morgan has agreed to pay a steep $125m fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to keep records of WhatsApp messages that included securities business communications.
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Payments

Greek Online Revenues On Track To Exceed £700m In 2021

Greece's newly licensed online market buoyed up the whole country's gambling industry in 2021, which grew fractionally year-on-year despite a nationwide lockdown that shuttered the land-based sector until May.
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Gambling

Illinois Gambling Lobbyist Who Opposed Casino Expansion Retires

Most gambling lobbyists are paid to advocate for the industry's expansion, but the head of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association spent almost all of his 20-year career battling legislators bent on saturating his state's market to increase tax revenue.
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Gambling

Learning from 2021 Regulatory Changes — Insight for 2022 and Beyond

This piece will look back at two notable and ongoing events: Brexit changes and the effect on payment service providers (PSPs) of reforms at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Germany’s financial regulator. It will relook at how these issues developed in 2021, and will seek to understand how these issues are likely to affect PSPs in 2022 and beyond.
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Payments

Revolut Scores Full EU Banking Licence

The British-headquartered fintech has been granted a full banking licence from the European Central Bank.
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Payments

Weak Automated AML Procedures Cost HSBC £64m

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has fined HSBC Bank £63,946,800 after finding failures in the bank’s automated processes that monitored hundreds of millions of transactions on a monthly basis.
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Payments

Cardageddon Or An Easy Ride? One Year Into SCA

Strong customer authentication (SCA) was the final compliance requirement to be borne out of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and, one year in, it continues to make headlines. Here is our round-up of some of the key events, challenges and voices of the industry that kept SCA in the news in 2021.
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Payments

Chaos' As Ukraine Skips Vote On Tax, Regulators

A vote to solve Ukraine’s gambling commission conflict and reduce its tax burden did not take place last week as planned, forcing ministers to scramble and leaving the industry looking to 2022 for long-term solutions.
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Gambling

Seminole Compact Challenge Forces Changes To California Sports-Betting Initiative

A federal judge’s decision to void a gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe and the state of Florida over a provision allowing state-wide mobile sports betting with servers based on tribal lands has prompted a coalition of four California tribes to revise their ballot proposal for online sports wagering.
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Gambling

Proposed Dutch Gambling Ban Sits In Minister's Hands

Whether and how the Netherlands imposes a ban on broadcast gambling ads plus restrictions on internet advertising will probably be up to an outgoing minister or his successor.
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Gambling

Christmas BNPL Spending Raises Concerns For Irish Consumer Watchdog

With one in three Irish consumers planning on using credit for their Christmas spending this year, Irish authorities have raised alarm bells about the risks of short-term credit, including credit cards and buy now, pay later (BNPL) products.
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Payments
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UK’s Final Safeguarding Rules Bring Relief, But Challenges Remain

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been applauded for listening to the payments industry’s feedback on its proposed safeguarding rule overhaul, but experts warn that challenges still lie ahead for firms.
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US Focus On Stablecoins Leaves It An Outlier As CBDCs Proliferate

As interest in the potential of digital assets grows, regulators and traditional financial institutions are seeking ways to safely and securely adopt the positive features of cryptocurrencies, while offering protections from their worst excesses.
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Regulatory Influencer: UAE’s CBDC Is Imminent

On July 31, 2025, the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) released a comprehensive report detailing progress towards the introduction of the digital dirham. The report reviews achievements to date, as well as the policy and design framework guiding the development of a secure, trusted and user-friendly central bank digital currency (CBDC) for individuals and businesses.
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Chile Senate Sets Up Final Showdown Over Online Gambling

After a Senate vote last week, Chile is now entering the final phases of a multi-year legislative process to regulate online gambling, with several pivotal policy questions due to be answered over the next few months.
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Philippine Central Bank Suspends In-App Gambling Payments

The Philippine central bank has severed a lucrative payments channel for the online gambling industry, forcing payments providers to suspend in-app transfers with 48 hours’ notice.
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‘Black Friday’ Crackdown On Illegal Gaming Cited As Effective Enforcement

Despite active enforcement efforts against offshore gambling websites, state gaming regulators and law enforcement officials believe it requires assistance from the U.S. federal government to effectively address a multi-billion-dollar problem.
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Australia’s Card Fraud Hits A$913m As Overseas Online Fraud Continues To Rise

Overseas card-not-present (CNP) fraud now accounts for the largest share of the country’s card fraud losses, according to new figures from the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet).
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Zelle Slams New York Attorney General’s Lawsuit As “Political Stunt”

US payments company Early Warning Systems has rejected allegations, made in a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general, Leticia James, that it allowed fraud on its Zelle platform.
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PSR Announces Plans To Revoke Two Specific Directions

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has opted to revoke Specific Direction 2 (SD2) and Specific Direction 4 (SD4), with the changes due to come into force in late August 2025.
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EBA Calls For Increased Use Of Suptech, But Warns That Challenges Remain

The authority believes that supervisory technology (suptech) tools can make anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) supervision more effective, but warns that legal, operational and resource hurdles could slow adoption.
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