Barclays fined £2.45 million for transaction reporting failures

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Barclays Capital Securities and Barclays Bank £2.45m for failing to provide accurate transaction reports to the watchdog and for “serious weaknesses” in systems and controls in relation to transaction reporting.

The regulator says it discovered discrepancies in Barclays’ data while reviewing a suspected incident of market abuse by a third party. A subsequent review of Barclays’ transaction reporting arrangements revealed that it did not have adequate systems and controls in place to meet the transaction reporting requirements as well as a “substantial number of errors” in the data submitted.

Firms are required to submit data for reportable transactions by close of business the day after a trade is executed.

Alexander Justham, FSA director of markets, says: “The penalty imposed on Barclays is significantly higher than previous penalties imposed for transaction reporting errors. This reflects the serious nature of Barclays’ breaches and is a warning to other firms that the FSA will not tolerate inadequate systems and controls.”

He says Barclays’ breaches occurred despite repeated reminders to firms of their obligations to provide accurate data and the importance of compliance with the FSA rules on transaction reporting during the course of 2007 and 2008.

Barclays agreed to settle with the FSA at an early stage in the invesitgation, earning a 30% discount on the fine, and commissioned a review of its internal processes and systems to resolve the failures.

From FinExtra.com

Austrac Sends Final Notice Letters

AUSTRAC sends final notice letter On 15 May, AUSTRAC sent a final notice letter to approximately 2,200 reporting entities who had not yet submitted their 2008 compliance reports.

The letter advised recipients that their failure to submit a compliance report may be a contravention of subsection 47(2) of the AML/CTF Act, and that failure to submit an AML/CTF compliance report may render them liable for severe civil penalties. Reporting entities are required to submit an annual compliance report which assists AUSTRAC to ensure businesses are compliant with their obligations under the AML/CTF Act. More information

AUSTRAC releases PLI 9 – customer identification requirements

AUSTRAC releases PLI 9 – customer identification requirements The AUSTRAC PLI series conveys AUSTRAC’s view on the legal meaning and effect of the legislation administered by the agency, and is intended to assist reporting entities to better

understand their obligations under the AML/CTF Act. AUSTRAC has recently published PLI 9, which outlines AUSTRAC’s views on the identification procedures set out in Part 2, Divisions 1–5 and 7 of the AML/CTF Act. The PLI deals with: • ‘identification procedures’ under Part 7 of the AML/CTF Act and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No.1) • when and in what circumstances ‘applicable customer identification procedures’ are to be carried out as set out in Part 2 of the AML/CTF Act • the relevance of the ‘100 point check’ prescribed in the Financial Transaction Reports Regulations 1990 for identification procedures under the AML/CTF Act. PLI 9 and the list of PLI topics for 2009 are available on the AUSTRAC website.

Major Customer Goes Live with Our Anti-Money Laundering Software in Australia

One of our major customers has completed a rollout of IMX Software’s Anti-Money Laundering system throughout their Australian branches to further extend the functionality of the IMX Foreign Exchange Point of Sale system, which they have been using for several years.

Compliance with the latest Austrac requirements involves operational scrutiny and reporting across the entire organisation, which is difficult to achieve effectively without good quality systems automation software. As the customer has been using the IMX Point of Sale system for some time, it was a logical next step to enhance the functionality by adding the IMX AML module, which provides all the necessary functionality for an organisation to meet the Australian compliance requirements.

The IMX Anti-Money Laundering system can be used to add comprehensive compliance functionality to the IMX Foreign Exchange Point of Sale system, in both browser based and desktop versions. The AML system provides both real time checking of individual transactions against regulatory limits, as well as building a database of transactional data which can then be used to detect common laundering techniques such as transaction structuring, and provide the basis for submission of suspicious matter and threshold reporting. The system can be tailored for various jurisdictions where an organisation may operate, and has the advantage of providing visibility across the entire national operation of an organisation, not just with a single branch. Deploying the IMX AML system can dramatically ease the compliance burden on an organisation, and reduce the need for manual checking of data for compliance issues.

If you would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact your account manager, or myself

Austrac AML and CTF 2009 Conference in Sydney

I will be attending the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Conference hosted by Austrac in Sydney on April 1 & 2 this year.

If you are planning to attend please feel free to mail me at tshaw@imxsoftware.com so we can catch up in Sydney.

There are some excellent presenters attending and this should be a great chance to get the latest information on managing AML and CTF risk.

WCS and Windows 7

Initial high level testing of the latest version of WCS on the Beta version of Windows 7 has not uncovered any issues with the compatibility of WCS on the new operating system.

Further testing will be carried out as Microsoft release subsequent builds of Windows 7, but so far the indications are that the transition will be smooth for customers looking to upgrade to Windows 7.

Merry Christmas to All Our Customers

From all the staff at IMX Software, we would like to wish our customers a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Thanks for your support over the past year, and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Reporting Services Add-On Pack for WCS is Now Available

I’m please to annouce that the Reporting Services Add-On Pack for WCS is now available. This package is available at no charge for our WCS customers.

The pack consists of database views and documentation to allow our WCS customers to use Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) to create their own reports on the WCS database.

SRSS provides a simple user interface to create ad-hoc reports on WCS data, and can be used by anyone in the organisation who has appropriate access. Reports can be saved and accessed via a web page, and the data can be exported and saved in many formats, including Microsoft Excel and PDF.

SRSS is free from Microsoft for customers using SQL Server 2005, and is part of the SQL Server 2005 installation package. All you need to do is configure it and start creating your own reports using the simple interface. Instructions are provided in the documentaiton package from IMX.

For customers using SQL Server 2000, SSRS is available, but an additional Microsoft license is required.

If you would like to receive the pack, please contact me at tshaw@imxsoftware.com

If you are a user of other IMX products such as point of sale or internet based systems, and are interested in using SRSS, please contact me.

Welcome to the IMX Product Management Blog

Starting today, you will find the latest information on the current and upcoming IMX products.

I’ll be making posts, and I’d welcome the feedback of our customers (you’ll need to enrol to be able to make posts)

All the best

Tim Shaw

IMX Global Product Manager