In our age of insecurity, and threat, it is easy to make the assumption that security interests trump all. But is it so simple? The status of the UK’s relationship to Europol and to other European police and intelligence agencies remains uncertain as the date for departure from the European …
Very interesting disclosure by Amber Rudd that there may be no connection between Parsons Green bomber and IS. This confirms my previous view that the tube bomb was uncharacteristically amateurish for the terror group While we know nothing at this moment about the nature of the bomber, lone actors who …
IS are on the run from their self-declared Caliphate in Syria/Iraq. The movement’s mission is shattered. Yet some minds still live the dream and are prepared to turn it into a nightmare for the innocent. The difference between the time when the mission was in tact and now is that …
The Serious Fraud Office and French prosecutors are in close discussion over the terms of a £1 billion-plus settlement for Airbus over corruption allegations. The deal, called a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), would be the largest ever in Europe, after a year-long investigation into irregular payments by Airbus to intermediaries. The …
In my last blog I observed that the systems that banks use to find the funds of the terrorist groups are largely pointless, on the grounds first that terrorist funding takes place in the cash economy, second, that the funds needed for each outrage are small. But this doesn’t mean …
This is the first Blog of Nick Kochan. It comes on a day when some Islamic terrorists have driven a van into numerous people in Barcelona. Terrorist financing will be a recurrent theme of this Blog. But the limitation of this form of scrutiny must be understood. The financing of …
Jul 18 2017 Nick Kochan, published in ThomsonReuters Compliance Complete Companies seeking out-of-court settlements in Belgium will face demands for greater transparency following the publication, expected towards the end of the year, of a report drawn up by a committee of 18 parliamentary representatives. One key finding will be the …
HSBC’s decision to walk away from its proposed $8 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in Nedbank is little short of dramatic. It poses a plethora of questions: why did HSBC do it; what happens to Nedbank; what does it say about the attractiveness of South African banks to global …
When Nigeria comes to the market this month with a £500m sovereign bond, investors will scrabble to get a piece of it. The $500 million ten year bond will be heavily oversubscribed as African credit moves away from the fringe of the emerging market universe to dead centre. Africa is …
Bankers may not have gone to jail as a result of their failure to manage the financial turbulence of the last few years, but politicians are determined that there should be no repeat of the mismanagement and greed that caused it. The issue is not just one of punishing bankers …
