The uncomfortable question is no longer whether banks had AML policies. The question is whether their published claims of group-wide control were ever tested against operational reality. A new EU standard exposes an old credibility problem Large European banking groups have told investors, regulators and the public for years that
In the United States, online fraud linked to Southeast Asian scam compounds has moved from a niche cybercrime issue to a major law-enforcement, sanctions and national-security concern. The U.S. Department of Justice has created a Scam Center Strike Force targeting cryptocurrency investment fraud, cyber-enabled fraud, human trafficking and money-laundering operations
Online investment scams rarely begin with one large bank transfer. They usually start much earlier: with an online advertisement, a registration form, a small first deposit, a fake trading account, a dashboard showing apparent profits, repeated calls from an “account manager”, and a withdrawal process that becomes increasingly difficult. For
ESMA: Unauthorised CASPs Must Wind Down On 23 June 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a clear warning to crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) that have not obtained authorisation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). After the end of the MiCA transitional period on 1 July 2026,
Meta, TikTok and Google are facing consumer complaints in Europe over financial scam advertisements. But the key question goes beyond platform compliance: if regulators impose fines, why should the money disappear into public budgets while the victims remain uncompensated? On 21 May 2026, BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, together with
Enhanced transaction monitoring under the PSR is old wine in new bottles. The bottle is better. The protection for victims is still not good enough
For years, high-risk merchants, offshore gambling operators and unlicensed online investment platforms have used a simple workaround to access European payment rails: insert an EU-based company into the payment chain and call it a “payment agent”, “payment processing agent” or “collection agent.” The model became popular for obvious reasons.
A new lawsuit against Meta deserves attention well beyond the world of social media moderation. On April 21, 2026, the Consumer Federation of America filed a class action complaint and jury trial demand in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, alleging that Meta misled D.C. users about the
Fraud does not operate on lies alone. It operates on accounts. On payment rails. On internal transfers. On outgoing wires. On institutions willing to keep the machinery running long after the warning signs should have triggered harder questions. That is why the newly filed U.S. class action against JPMorgan Chase
Stablecoins, on-chain crypto-assets pegged to the value of fiat currencies such as the US dollar and Euro (USDT and USDC), are currently used predominantly as the “cash leg” of the crypto ecosystem: they serve as a settlement and liquidity instrument for trading and as a bridge between fiat and crypto
