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American Express National Bank has been ordered to pay a $350 million civil money penalty after US banking regulators identified significant weaknesses in its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programme, including failures to identify, investigate and report approximately $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering activity over roughly a decade. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the penalty on October 8, 2026, alongside a cease-and-

The European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) has opened a public consultation on draft regulatory technical standards for establishing a central EU-wide database containing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisory information. The consultation, launched on October 7, 2026, concerns regulatory technical standards required under Article 11(6) of the AMLA Regulation. The proposed framework is intended to create a single system through whic

German and Dutch authorities have carried out coordinated raids against a suspected international money laundering and gold smuggling network, arresting three suspects and searching around 40 residential and commercial properties. The operation on October 7 involved approximately 450 police and customs officers across several German states and the Netherlands, with support from Europol. Searches were conducted in locations including Cologne, Wuppertal, Leverkusen, Gelsenkirch

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has withdrawn two long-standing proposals that would have introduced additional anti-money laundering requirements for cryptocurrency transactions involving self-hosted wallets and crypto mixing. The withdrawals, effective October 6, 2026, concern proposals first issued in 2020 and 2023. FinCEN said the decisions followed consideration of public comments and form part of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda and

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK) is expanding controlled access to the Netherlands’ beneficial ownership register for recognised institutions subject to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions obligations, giving eligible organisations new ways to obtain certified information about ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs). The development restores and broadens practical access to UBO information after restrictions on the register. The changes introduce

The European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) has finalised three sets of draft regulatory technical standards designed to establish greater consistency in how companies and professionals apply anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements across the private sector. The standards, announced by AMLA on 1 October 2026, focus on three key areas: identifying business relationships and occasional or linked transactions, customer due diligence,

A report released by Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has raised concerns over the use of Tether’s USDT stablecoin in financial networks linked to Iran and its regional proxies. The report analysed blockchain transaction data from 846 cryptocurrency wallets that had been sanctioned or targeted for seizure because of alleged links to Iran and associated groups. It found that 84% of the wallets had transacted exclusively or almost e

Eurojust and the United Arab Emirates have signed a Working Arrangement aimed at strengthening judicial cooperation and information exchange in investigations involving serious cross-border crime, including money laundering, fraud, cybercrime and drug trafficking. The arrangement was signed on September 28, 2026, in Abu Dhabi by Eurojust President Michael Schmid and UAE Minister of Justice Abdullah Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi during the United Nations Congress on Crime Preventi

More than 200 American victims and relatives of people killed or injured in terrorist attacks in Iraq and Israel have filed a lawsuit against Commerzbank AG in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the German bank provided financial services that helped Iran and organisations linked to it support terrorist activity. The civil complaint concerns attacks that took place between 2007 and 2011. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive dam

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has prohibited all branches of Bank Melli Iran operating in the UAE from conducting financial transactions to and from Iran following regulatory examinations that identified violations of UAE laws, regulations and supervisory requirements. The measure was announced on 23 September 2026 by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). The prohibition applies specifically to financial transactions between the UAE branches of Bank Melli Iran a

Financial firms in the United Kingdom closed 238,396 customer accounts linked to suspected money mule activity in 2025, according to a review published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 23 September 2026. The regulator’s findings also show that fraud proceeds commonly pass through multiple mule accounts before being withdrawn or otherwise converted into usable funds. The figures were collected through a survey of 35 financial services firms, including retail banks,

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published its 2026 Mutual Evaluation Report on Türkiye, finding that the country has strengthened its defences against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, while identifying a number of areas requiring further improvement. The assessment examined Türkiye’s AML/CFT/CPF framework and its effectiveness based on the situation at the time of the FATF’s on-site visit in November 2025. The evaluation found that

US federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance knowingly allowed trading activity that violated US sanctions relating to Iran, adding a new layer of regulatory scrutiny to the cryptocurrency exchange. The reported investigation is being led by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in Washington also involved. The inquiry concerns whether transactions involving Iran or Iranian-linked parties we

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Sweden have arrested seven people in a coordinated investigation into an international money laundering network that allegedly handled approximately 70 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to about AED 26.5 million, over a period of ten months. The suspected leader of the network, a Swedish national, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates after fleeing Sweden. He was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice in connection with suspected

The United States has imposed sanctions on Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank, its software developer and three individuals linked to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, alleging that the network facilitated the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The designations were announced by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 17 September 2026 under Executive Order 13902, w

The UK Government has launched a three-year Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy covering the period from 2026 to 2029, setting out measures to strengthen the detection, disruption and prosecution of money laundering and increase the recovery of criminal assets. The strategy, published on 15 September 2026, is backed by more than £550 million of investment over three years and is expected to result in the recruitment of 500 additional law enforcement officers and

Five individuals allegedly linked to Russian intelligence services have been charged in the United States with conspiring to finance terrorism and, in three cases, with conspiring to commit murder for hire, following an investigation into a network accused of arranging payments for attacks, surveillance and targeted killings. The charges were unsealed on 15 September 2026 in the Southern District of New York. According to the indictment, the network operated from at least 202

The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia’s VTB Bank over its alleged involvement in Iranian financial activities and efforts to circumvent US sanctions. The action was taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under Executive Order 13902, which authorises sanctions against persons operating in specified sectors of the Iranian economy, including the financial sector. The designation concerns VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company, one of Russia’s largest financia

The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has identified approximately $17.5 billion in suspicious financial activity potentially linked to health care fraud in a review of Bank Secrecy Act reports filed by financial institutions between March 1, 2025 and February 28, 2026. The findings were published in a Financial Trend Analysis examining patterns identified in 5,702 Bank Secrecy Act reports. The reports concerned suspected health care fraud and suspicious receip

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language online marketplace that US authorities say has been used extensively to support cyber scams, fraud, money laundering and other criminal activity targeting Americans. The designation was announced on September 9, 2026, as part of coordinated action involving the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice and the Scam Center Strike Force. OFAC also