Regulatory Watch News

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  New INTERPOL report highlights escalating cyber threats across Asia and South Pacific

  Interpol

  June 17, 2026

    SINGAPORE – INTERPOL’s 2025/2026 Asia and South Pacific Cyberthreat Assessment Report has revealed a dramatic increase in cybercrime across the region driven by rapid digitalization, new technologies and increasingly organized criminal networks. The report, covering the period from January 2024 to March 2025, found that more than half of the countries surveyed reported cybercrime now accounting for 30 per cent of all crimes recorded nationally. Cyber-scam techniques such as phishing have emerged as the most widespread and financially damaging form of cybercrime, with 33 per cent of countries reporting over 10,000 cases.

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  OFSI issues £1m penalty for Russia sanctions breaches in first circumvention case

  OFSI

  June 17, 2026

  Sabre Global Technologies Limited (SGTL) Penalty

  OFSI has imposed a £1,000,920.59 monetary penalty on Sabre Global Technologies Limited (SGTL), its largest monetary penalty in relation to Russia sanctions since the 2022 invasion. Between May and December 2022, SGTL continued to provide services to a designated entity and sought to receive payments after designation, including exploring alternative payment routes which amounted to circumvention of UK sanctions. This case was assessed as “most serious” with aggravating factors including deliberate circumvention, high breach value, repeated and extended breaches, and substantial risk of harm to the objectives of the UK’s Russia sanctions regime.

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  Ikano Bank receives a remark and an administrative fine

  Finansinspektionen

  June 17, 2026

  The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) issues Ikano Bank AB (Ikano) a remark and an administrative fine of 140 million kronor for violations of anti–money laundering regulations. Finansinspektionen has investigated in part Ikano’s compliance with the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act (2017:630) governing measures against money laundering and terrorist financing. The investigation shows that the bank has been in violation of several of these provisions.