The annual FIU/ACAMS AML/CFT Conference was held in Wellington in November.
Sanctions was one of the key focus subjects at the conference. Sanctions are particularly high profile at the moment following the Russian invasion of Ukraine but have always been an important tool to interrupt economic relations and trade and thereby exert pressure on regimes to change their behaviour.
NZ keynote session: Financial Sanctions upon Russia
Until this year New Zealand has not had its own sanctions regime, instead following sanctions on people and entities that were set by international organisations. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine New Zealand introduced the Russia Sanctions Act 2022 to introduce its own sanctions regime. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) publish a list of sanctioned people and entities from Russia and Belarus. The list is regularly reviewed and updated and currently holds over 1,000 entries.
Reporting entities are required to identify whether any of their customers are sanctioned. With the sanction lists being updated regularly and potentially daily, reporting entities need to be checking their customers daily. Global watchlists such as World-Check and Dow Jones continually monitor the updates to the sanction lists and update their watchlists daily. Jade ThirdEye can be configured to use either of these watchlists to check all the customers of a reporting entity against updated sanctions on a daily basis.