Knowledge Center

As the Biden administration prioritizes the recently enacted Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (2020 AMLA), the [..]

Over the past week, the world has watched the crisis unfolding in Ukraine in disbelief, anger and fear.  Most of [..]

As the Internet has come to play an increasingly central role in people’s lives across the globe, the information [..]

Last week, the EU considered blacklisting the United Arab Emirates. The suggestion comes following a new data leak [..]

I served as the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Attache to Afghanistan during the eighth, ninth and tenth [..]

Every year, we highlight predictions for the year.  We are doing so again this year, though it seems ever-more [..]

While perhaps not having the most pleasant-sounding of names, “dirt strings” are a critical tool in financial [..]

For years shell companies have been at the heart of both legitimate business activity and money laundering [..]

This week, the world was rocked by revelations from the Pandora Papers, the largest leak of records from tax [..]

At first glance, one may not think that NGOs are big players in the anti-money laundering (AML) space. One may [..]

Every day, millions of articles are published to the Internet across multiple platforms, languages and focal [..]

Open-source Intelligence (OSINT) is an incredibly powerful tool for both the public and private sectors alike. [..]

In just over a week since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the global economy has experienced a dramatic shift.  [..]

This week, as the Afghan peace deal went into effect, which includes the potential removal of economic sanctions, [..]

Adverse media is increasingly important for financial institutions and global corporates. Google search strings [..]

This week, the United States and its allies launched the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) [..]

Sigma continues to provide updated, improved screening for clients interested in understanding potential exposure [..]

When I interviewed with the U.S. Treasury in 2005, the Department was undergoing a major restructuring, having [..]

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department’s anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [..]

Last month, the U.S. State Department and U.S. The Treasury Department sanctioned Vassil Bojkov, a well-known [..]

This week, the ICIJ reported on a new study by a group of renowned academics that revealed that, despite past [..]

This week, Credit Suisse announced it will exit the hedge fund business as the Swiss bank looks to revamp itself [..]

Last week, Reuters reported that “as the Biden administration pushes ahead with an effort to combat global [..]

This week, Monzo, an early fintech unicorn, disclosed in its annual report that it is facing a potential civil and [..]

8 miles off the coast of Britain lies the Principality of Sealand, the world’s smallest self-proclaimed state. [..]

One might imagine the surprise a Customs Official has when viewing an invoice for toilet paper imported from China [..]

After the release of the Panama Papers in 2015, the terms “shell company” or “shelf company” became associated [..]

This month, the Bank of Italy banned N26 from taking on new customers or engaging in any transactions with them, [..]

This week, German digital bank N26, the country’s highest valued start-up, was fined $5M for AML failings by BaFin [..]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has abruptly transformed the world.  In response, an increasing number of severe [..]

This week, the OCCRP reported that an “owner of a swanky Manhattan art gallery, who sold ancient artifacts to [..]

Earlier this week, cryptocurrency found itself at the center of a heated U.S. Congressional debate over the U.S.’s [..]

Last week, following its latest plenary, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global AML watchdog, [..]

This week, an investigation by Buzzfeed revealed that the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich allegedly utilized a [..]

Last week, during the U.S.-led Summit for Democracy, the Biden administration released a new anti-corruption [..]

Last week, the U.S. Treasury released a highly anticipated report on money laundering and terror financing in the [..]

This week, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released the inaugural national [..]

This week, Bloomberg reported that “big banks and the powerful lobbying groups representing them are readying a [..]

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition for review from Alpine Securities in its bid to argue that [..]

This week, the Basel Institute on Governance published the 10th annual edition of the Basel AML Index for 2021, a [..]

Last week, the WSJ reported that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse along with a collection of public-policy groups urged [..]

This week, the FT reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to launch a crackdown on corporate [..]

Today, we mark the 20^th anniversary of September 11^th, 2001. With 33.2% of the world’s population under the age of [..]

This month, the European Union revealed its plan to set up a new agency, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority [..]

This week, the FT, citing a senior government official, reported that the UAE has significantly increased its [..]

The concept of “Ultimate Beneficial Owner” (or UBO) is a critically important one in corporate law and anti-money [..]

Golden Passports or Visas, a citizenship by investment or residency by investment program, has drawn increased [..]

An alert in a bank’s transaction monitoring system notifies that there is a large amount of money being [..]

So, an ex-banker’s wife walks into a British department store…

Last week, a Swiss court demanded compensation of $45 million from Credit Suisse in a money laundering case [..]

“Two heads are better than one”, as the old saying goes. However, in anti-money laundering and risk review, “four [..]

This week, the WSJ reported that the U.S. Treasury is “facing a wide range of views on the details of a corporate [..]

Time and resource commitments dedicated to manually determining line of business and verifying internet presence [..]

With the release of the FinCEN Files, what was a common denominator related to an international money laundering [..]

This week, the Tax Justice Network (“TJN”) released the 2022 Financial Secrecy Index, which ranks jurisdictions [..]

Last week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its Report on the State of Effectiveness and Compliance [..]

In our effort to further enable customers to control their own Sigma platform and data experiences, and to support [..]

From a financial crime perspective, financial institutions, fintechs, and others should proactively seek to [..]

Last week, FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury’s anti-money-laundering (AML) unit, “warned financial institutions against [..]

Last week, Reuters reported that investor groups have asked for more ESG disclosures from the US Securities and [..]

This week, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Sherrod Brown, called on Wells Fargo to resolve its [..]

Vladimir Putin's recent deadly aggression against Ukraine has put pressure on the international community to [..]

This week, the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) released its annual Corruption [..]

Today, we are releasing the following updates to improve the clarity of our insights, transparency of results and [..]

In addition to unrivaled coverage and configurability, Sigma News is now further aligned to recent FATF, FINCEN, [..]

Last month, the Council on Foreign Relations reported that an arrest warrant issued by U.S. law enforcement for a [..]

In the aftermath of the 2016 Panama Papers data leak, the term "shell company" rapidly emerged in news coverage of [..]

This week, from the U.S sanctions against SUEX OTC, the first time the Treasury Department has sanctioned a [..]

This week, the WSJ reported that Latvia is seeking to rebuild its reputation in face of Russia sanctions given [..]

Sigma Monitoring has been further enhanced to offer new self-service capabilities that allow for end to end [..]

This week, with the world’s eyes on Kabul, the Group of 7 announced that they agreed on a plan to deal with the [..]

A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a report made by a regulated institution in a variety of finance-related [..]

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it will start using a largely unused [..]

Sigma releases API to detect and score financial crime risk at scale

Hello Sigma network!

Last week, American Banker reported that the U.S. Treasury was looking to spur AI innovation amid pressure to [..]

Hello Sigma network!

We continue to roll out new product enhancements across our product offerings to support our [..]

What if you need the latest about business developments in Mongolia or better continuous monitoring of an entity [..]

Previously, we have discussed the large, though often overlooked, role that trade-based money laundering (TBML) [..]

Not everybody has a glass-half-full kind of mentality, but when it comes to ownership by sanctioned entities, the [..]

Sigma expands Address Risk coverage, releases new matching algorithm and improves search speed by 5x

Hello Sigma [..]

Over the last decade, gender diversity on corporate boards has become one of the most talked about trends and [..]

This week, the Tax Justice Network, a “group funded by donations and campaigning for transparency,” released the [..]

This month, a new study from the Yale School of Management, which has been monitoring approximately 1,300 [..]

Compliance is Missing from the Equation

More than $22 trillion assets are now invested according to ESG [..]

Corruption and money laundering go hand-in-hand.  

We are excited to announce a host of new features that significantly improve the experience and ease of use for [..]

We are excited to announce a number of new features that are purpose built for the modern investigator as we [..]

In recent years, the term “FinTech” has been swirling around media reports and economic discourse with increasing [..]

We are delighted to announce the release of our upgraded Sigma Open Search capabilities. This release is the [..]

This week, media reports alleged that both the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI were investigating Danske [..]

In the wake of the FinCEN Files , lawmakers and regulators around the world have reacted to the unprecedented [..]

On pushing forward broader adoption

With the SEC whistleblower program setting new records in 2020 and with a renewed focus on whistleblowers as a [..]

This month, a new report titled the ‘True Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Global Report’ revealed that [..]

Mapping financial networks to the edge of the world.

Not to be outdone by Goldman Sachs’ AI-generated World Cup predictions (spoiler alert: Goldman Sachs predicts that [..]

€6,500 billion. It is the amount of assets managed by sometimes secretive investment funds in Luxembourg, the [..]

This week, the World Economic Forum kicked off its annual summit with the theme of "A Crucial Year to Rebuild [..]

Last month, the announcement of Germany’s arrest of a businessman suspected of purchasing “sophisticated [..]

During a recent industry workshop, several leading institutions, including Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Citi, among [..]

Last week, following weeks of investigative reporting, The Washington Post compiled their various investigations [..]

Sigma Ratings has reviewed the history of anti-money laundering legislation in the United States and highlighted [..]

While KYC stands for “Know Your Customer” and is at the heart of AML efforts, for compliance teams it can be just [..]

It is that time of the year when Transparency International puts out its latest country ratings around the [..]

This week, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) released a report outlining the [..]

This week, the share price of Wirecard fell more than 60%, less than 2 years after its debut on the prestigious [..]

This week, according to a leaked intelligence bulletin, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation expressed concern [..]

This week, the European Central Bank, in its push for supervisory technology, stated that “national bank [..]

This week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global AML/CFT watchdog founded by the G7, published its new [..]

Throughout the last few years, export controls have taken heretofore unseen prominence in news media headlines. In [..]

Last month, David Lewis, the executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), called for a change in [..]

Norvik Banka Achieves BB+ Business Integrity Rating  

Sigma Ratings Inc. announces its first-ever Sigma Rating for [..]

This week, the United States, EU, UK and Canada announced coordinated sanctions against key Chinese officials for [..]

The world has changed.  

This week, the Council of the European Union published its latest EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax [..]

Why Sigma Ratings?

First Fake News, Now Fake People

Alexa Altos operates a web design firm in California, has a number of employees, [..]

What you should be paying attention to in 2021:

For ease of reading, we divide predictions between highly [..]

This week, reports emerged that JPMorgan, in an internal memo, stated they’re investigating their own employees [..]

This week, the WSJ rightly highlighted that the biggest impediment to the U.S. Treasury’s plans to implement a [..]

Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it added 7 Chinese companies in the supercomputer space to [..]

A problem with few solutions

Q & A with Mark Batts

Former Managing Director, Financial Institutions Group Head of Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) [..]

Transparency Does Not Need to Be Hard 

 “To achieve an equitable, inclusive, and more prosperous future for all, [..]

Early in the pandemic, the FT, in response to the UK regulator sanctioning a digital KYC process, highlighted that [..]

Last week, the Basel Institute on Governance released its 2020 edition of the Basel AML Index. And what a surprise [..]

This week, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) marked the 5^th anniversary of the [..]

The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) released the ‘ACAMS Compliance [..]

According to KPMG, 1 in 3 business leaders don’t trust the information they use to make decisions. How can you act [..]

Many of you were so kind as to fill out our poll on risk in the Middle East . As you’ll see below, perception does [..]

In 2014 the Financial Stability Board (FSB) set up a standardized way to label and find the legal identity of any [..]

In a few weeks, it will be the year of the pig, but I’m not so sure that its going to be that generous.  Much of [..]

This week, as the United States’ Senate held the confirmation hearings on presidential nominations, Janet Yellen, [..]

Nothing is more constant than change.

Perception vs Data

During recent travel in the Middle East, we met with senior executives at leading banks, exchange houses and [..]

A New Hub for Money Laundering

Last week the Wall Street Journal highlighted a new, burgeoning money laundering [..]

This week, the outgoing U.S. administration has continued its “aggressive use of sanctions” with a flurry of [..]