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Treasury Department to Use ‘Automation and Innovation’ to Fight Illicit Finance

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Treasury Department to Use ‘Automation and Innovation’ to Fight Illicit Finance

The Department of the Treasury has outlined the priorities it will pursue this year to step up the fight against illicit finance.

The agency aims to increase transparency, leverage partnerships and support responsible technological innovation, it said in a Thursday (May 16) press release announcing the publication of its “2024 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing.”

One of the Department’s priorities for the year is closing legal and regulatory gaps in the country’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework, according to the release. It aims to do so by operationalizing the beneficial ownership information registry; finalizing rules covering the residential real estate and investment advisor sectors; and assessing the vulnerability of other sectors.

A second priority is promoting a more effective and risk-focused AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory framework for financial institutions, the release said. The Department will work to do so by providing clear compliance guidance, sharing information and providing resources for supervision and enforcement.

The Department also aims to enhance the operational effectiveness of law enforcement, other U.S. government agencies and international partnerships to combat illicit finance, per the release.

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The fourth priority announced in the press release is realizing “the benefits of responsible technological innovation” by developing new payments technology, supporting the use of new mechanisms for compliance, and using automation and innovation to find new ways to fight illicit finance, the release said.

“In this critical moment for our national and economic security, we need to continue to close the pathways that illicit actors seek to exploit for their schemes,” Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the release. “We recognize the threat illicit financial activity represents to our national security, economic prosperity, and our democratic values, and are focused on addressing both the challenges of today and emerging concerns.”

These recommendations are meant to address key risks the Department of the Treasury identified in February in its “2024 National Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing Risk Assessments.”

In another recent move, the Treasury Department said in April that it wants more tools to curb terror financing.

In testimony released ahead of an April 9 appearance before the Senate Banking Committee, Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said terrorist groups and state actors continually “seek new ways to move their resources in light of the actions we are taking to cut them off from accessing the traditional financial system.”

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Finance

At G-7, Biden and European leaders agree to finance Ukraine using Russian assets

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At G-7, Biden and European leaders agree to finance Ukraine using Russian assets

Key details of the financing arrangement still need to be agreed, but the leaders, meeting at a summit of the Group of Seven major advanced economies, hope it will shore up Ukraine’s finances as it fights against the two-year-old Russian invasion.

Separately, Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to unveil a bilateral security agreement that seeks to establish a long-term U.S. commitment to military aid for the embattled country.

The steps by G-7 leaders at the summit in southern Italy represent the latest effort by Western allies to signal their commitment to supporting Ukraine’s defense with arms and funding, despite political divisions within the U.S. and Europe creating uncertainty about the longevity of that support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has redoubled the military pressure on Ukraine in recent months, exploiting the sputtering flow of Western military aid to badly damage Ukraine’s energy grid with missile attacks and expanding Russia’s ground offensive in eastern Ukraine.

G-7 leaders aimed to announce the framework of an agreement to use the investment returns, mainly interest payments, generated from roughly $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets that the U.S. and Europe froze after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Most of the Russian central bank assets are held in Europe.

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The plan seeks to create a new financial instrument to provide Kyiv with years’ worth of expected profits on Russian assets.

U.S. and French officials said they hope the disbursements can start flowing to Ukraine by the end of the year.

A senior Biden administration official said G-7 leaders had a “political agreement at the highest levels for this deal. And it is $50 billion…that will be committed.”

Zelensky, one of several world leaders invited to join the three-day summit at a luxury resort in the Italian region of Puglia, was due to hold a joint news conference with Biden late on Thursday.

The U.S.-Ukraine security pact seeks to commit future administrations to work with Congress to provide funding and military support for Kyiv. It makes no new promises regarding Ukraine’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. White House officials acknowledge that future U.S. presidents could withdraw from the bilateral agreement, which isn’t a treaty and doesn’t require congressional approval. It also has no dollar amount of military funding attached.

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Ukraine has already signed a series of similar pacts with European and other countries, some of which have spelled out specific future support.

Former President Donald Trump, who faces Biden in November’s rematch election, has said he believes he could persuade Putin to negotiate an end to the war and has questioned why the U.S. has been sending billions of dollars worth of military and financial aid to Ukraine.

But Trump quietly consented to the passage of a short-term military-aid package for Ukraine and endorsed proposals by some Republicans to support Ukraine in the form of a loan.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday that the security agreement with Ukraine was a “real marker of our commitment, not just for this month, this year, but for many years to support Ukraine, both in defending against Russian aggression and in deterring future aggression so that Ukraine can be a sovereign, viable, thriving democracy.”

Sullivan told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One Wednesday that it would send Russia “a signal of our resolve. If Vladimir Putin thinks that he can outlast the coalition supporting Ukraine, he’s wrong. He just cannot wait us out.”

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Ukraine desperately needs continued financial support. A separate loan package from the European Union worth 50 billion euros, equivalent to around $54 billion, is intended to help shore up Kviv’s ability to pay for basic government services, salaries and pensions through 2027.

In addition, the World Bank estimated in February that Ukraine’s reconstruction costs after the war will total close to $500 billion.

The planned $50 billion in financing for Kyiv backed by Russian assets must still overcome differences between Washington and European capitals on the technical details of how to structure the funding and how the risk on the loans should be shared.

European officials have said in recent days they envisage much of the funding would flow via existing EU programs for Ukraine. They also want the U.S. to help guarantee the loan so that if profits from the Russian assets stop flowing in, Europe won’t have to foot the bill alone.

The EU wants the loan to pay mainly for military aid for Ukraine, in line with a previous agreement it made on how to use the windfall profits, which are expected to total around $3 billion to $4 billion a year. The EU also wants to make sure their companies win some of the contracts for the civilian or military work that Ukraine spends the money on.

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Washington had been pushing for a loan to be made by a special purpose vehicle managed by the World Bank, with the U.S. and its G-7 partners supplying the money upfront. The U.S. is concerned that the flow of profits from frozen Russian assets could be halted in Europe if Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban has long had close relations with Moscow, vetoes the continued EU sanctioning of Russian assets. Authorization for the asset freeze and other EU sanctions must be renewed every six months.

European officials have said resolving the technical details could take many weeks. Sullivan said G-7 leaders planned to set a clear timetable for experts to agree on details.

Noemie Bisserbe contributed to this article.

Write to Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com

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Pak may borrow $23 bn in next fiscal year to finance development plans

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Pak may borrow $23 bn in next fiscal year to finance development plans

These nations and international creditors are now dictating their terms due to their unending dependency on them | Photo: Shutterstock


Pakistan has planned to borrow a minimum of $23 billion in the next fiscal year, including the rollover of a bilateral debt of $12 billion, to finance its development plans and meet its external financing requirement which will keep the cash-strapped country’s foreign and economic policies dependent on global financial institutions like the IMF, according to a media report on Thursday.


Budget documents for fiscal year 2024-25 showed that Pakistan would borrow at least $23.2 billion, or Rs 5.9 trillion, which did not include any loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Express Tribune newspaper reported, adding that the International Monetary Fund’s loan will be for balance of payments support.


Out of the $23 billion, the government has included $20 billion in budget documents. It has not made the rollover of $3 billion by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) part of federal books as it is also meant for balance of payments support.

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Details showed that Pakistan would take $19 billion in loans for budget financing and building its foreign exchange reserves. The amount appears colossal, which will keep the country’s foreign and economic policies dependent on the IMF, the World Bank, Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE and the Islamic Development Bank.


These nations and international creditors are now dictating their terms due to their unending dependency on them.


Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has claimed that he has received investment pledges of $15 billion from Saudi Arabia and the UAE but so far these promises have not translated into concrete agreements.


After being unable to acquire new debt from foreign commercial banks, the government has once again budgeted $3.9 billion worth of foreign commercial loans in the new fiscal year. However, in the outgoing year, China rolled over $1 billion of commercial debt.


There was hope that the international credit rating agencies would improve Pakistan’s junk rating under the $3 billion IMF’s standby arrangement. However, political and economic vulnerabilities prevented them from improving Pakistan’s standing.

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Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Tuesday that the rating agencies were waiting for approval of the new Extended Fund Facility of the IMF. In case of further delay in the improvement of the ratings, the government’s plan of raising $4.9 billion through Eurobond and foreign commercial loans would not materialise.


The government had estimated the receipt of $6 billion from sovereign bonds and foreign commercial loans in the current fiscal year. After such deals could not be clinched, the State Bank of Pakistan bought an equal amount from the Pakistani markets.


The government has once again included the rollover of $5 billion in cash deposits from Saudi Arabia. This shows that the country will not be able to return the money out of which $3 billion had been taken in 2019 for just one year.


However, Saudi Arabia has not agreed to extend the oil facility of $1 billion to the next fiscal year, prompting the government to exclude it from the projection of external loan receipts. Similarly, the government has not included any new loan from Saudi Arabia for the import of petrol.


China’s $4 billion in cash deposit has again been added to the rollover queue, of which $2 billion is maturing next month.

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The UAE’s financing has not been added to the federal borrowing plan since the money has been given for the balance of payments support, which will be serviced by the central bank from its profits. Out of the $3 billion, $1 billion is maturing next month.


The government has also estimated a new loan of $500 million from the Islamic Development Bank and $465 million on account of Naya Pakistan Certificates. Around $1.1 billion will be borrowed to finance the federal Public Sector Development Programme, according to the paper.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Jun 13 2024 | 2:19 PM IST

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Finance

Inside the bill that oculd change the future of campaign finance, NC politics

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Inside the bill that oculd change the future of campaign finance, NC politics

A bill on Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk limits mask use during protests and would loosen state campaign finance laws.

Web Editor : Mark Bergin
Reporter : Laura Leslie
Photographer : Jendaya Fleming

Posted 2024-06-12T19:35:13-0400 – Updated 2024-06-12T19:35:13-0400

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