Jersey's first corporate conviction for money laundering in 15 years

The successful prosecution by Jersey's relatively new economic crime and confiscation unit of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank's Jersey branch, for failing to maintain proper money laundering policies and procedures, is a demonstration of the growing use by regulators of their criminal powers to tackle money laundering; and a demonstration on Jersey's part that it is serious about financial transparency and combatting financial crime.   The UK's Financial Conduct Authority is also increasingly using its full range of tools by pursuing criminal investigations into AML issues increasingly frequently, alongside its regulatory and civil powers.  The action by the Jersey regulator has been concluded at a time of considerable pressure on regulators across Europe to take decisive action on AML failings and so we can expect to see more of this sort of enforcement action across Europe.