When Sweden's financial regulator published its latest assessment of money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions risks on Thursday, the sectors drawing the most scrutiny were largely the same ones that appeared in previous editions, including banks, international payment services and crypto-assets.
Spain’s competition watchdog has opened a formal investigation into six of the country’s largest banks over concerns that public comments by senior executives may have unlawfully signaled future business strategy to competitors.
The European Securities and Markets Authority said its work in 2025 centered on strengthening supervision, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens and supporting innovation across the European Union’s financial markets, as the bloc continued work on its Savings and Investments Union agenda.
Ikano Bank's anti-money laundering problems did not begin with customer due diligence. According to Sweden's financial regulator, they began earlier with the bank's understanding of its own risks. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen (FI), has issued the bank a formal remark and imposed an administrative fine of approximately €12.8 million (SEK 140 million) after finding shortcomings in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework.
The Bank of New Zealand has admitted misleading customers about how interest was calculated on certain non-profit accounts and agreed to pay approximately $1.56 million (NZ$2.6 million) to the Crown through an enforceable undertaking with New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority.
The Spanish competition regulator has revised one of its key compliance guidance documents, seeking to provide companies with greater clarity on how competition law compliance programs will be assessed and how those assessments may influence enforcement outcomes.
Apple's cloud business has become the latest test case for Europe's digital competition rules. Italy's Competition Authority said it has opened an investigation into Apple over whether the company is giving rival consumer cloud providers the same access to iPhone and iPad features that it reserves for its own iCloud service.