Financial Crime World

Financial Crime on Rise in Netherlands Antilles: Regulatory Enforcement Actions Increase

The threat of financial crime is a growing concern for businesses and organizations operating in the Netherlands Antilles. Regulatory enforcement actions are increasing year after year, making it essential for companies to have effective controls in place to mitigate this risk.

The Scale of Financial Crime

  • According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, an estimated $2 trillion of illicit funds are laundered through global financial networks every year.
  • This represents between two to five percent of global GDP.

No Firm is Immune to Regulatory Challenges

Criminals are growing more sophisticated and looking for new weaknesses in financial networks. Strict checks are required to ensure that businesses are not dealing with clients that may be exposing them to significant regulatory or reputational risks.

Mitigating the Risk of Financial Crime

Organizations must have effective controls in place to conduct thorough and robust due diligence checks on their customers. This includes:

Customer Onboarding

  • Complete Specific Customer Due Diligence (CDD) on new customers, including:
    • Beneficial ownership checks
    • Screening for politically exposed persons (PEPs)
    • Sanctions screening
    • Adverse media screening

Ongoing Monitoring of Existing Customers

Financial institutions are required to conduct regular and ongoing monitoring of their existing customers to check that their customers’ profiles haven’t changed in a way that exposes them to additional risk factors.

Real-Time Payments and Sanctions Screening

  • All businesses are obligated to comply with sanctions screening requirements
  • Adequate controls must be in place to ensure that payments are not unwittingly processed in restricted sectors or for sanctioned individuals, entities, or jurisdictions

The Cost of Getting it Wrong

The cost of non-compliance can be severe, with penalties ranging from multi-billion-dollar fines to having business licenses revoked.

Enhancing Anti-Financial Crime and Regulatory Measures

Dow Jones offers Managed Services that can assist at all stages of the process, including:

  • Managed setup
  • Initial reviews
  • Backlog reviews
  • Ongoing monitoring and support

Benefits of Using Robust, Resilient Screening Data

Using robust, resilient screening data can help organizations stay ahead of the threat of financial crime and regulatory challenges in the Netherlands Antilles. The benefits include:

  • Secondary identifiers reducing false positives
  • Consolidated watchlists minimizing duplication
  • Meticulous ongoing regulatory monitoring
  • Expert negative news screening
  • Workflow flexibility for resource optimization
  • PEP data that captures regional nuances

Conclusion

Regulatory enforcement actions for financial crime are increasing in the Netherlands Antilles, making it essential for businesses to have effective controls in place to mitigate this risk. By using robust, resilient screening data and Dow Jones’ Managed Services, organizations can stay ahead of the threat of financial crime and regulatory challenges.