NEWS: EU targets Russian banks with 18th sanctions package

Regulatory Watch News

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  26 arrested in Panama after international investigation into cocaine trafficking network targeting Australia and Europe

  Australia Federal Police

  July 9, 2026

  Twenty-six port workers have been arrested in Panama following a two-year international investigation into an organised crime network allegedly responsible for trafficking more than one tonne of cocaine intercepted in Australia and across Europe. Police will allege the network used the Port of Balboa as a key transit hub, relying on corrupt port workers and contractors to contaminate refrigerated shipping containers with illicit drugs before they were exported to Australia and Europe.

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  GRECO contributes to the development of the future EU Anti-Corruption Strategy

  GRECO

  July 9, 2026

  GRECO has submitted its contribution to the European Commission to support the development of the future EU Anti-Corruption Strategy. Building on more than 25 years of monitoring anti-corruption reforms across its 48 member States, including all 27 EU Member States, GRECO identifies key priorities for the future Strategy, including a stronger preventive approach, effective implementation, risk-based policies and greater coherence with international standards and existing monitoring mechanisms. Drawing on its unique experience of monitoring and peer evaluation across its international membership, GRECO’s contribution highlights good practices and lessons learned to support the European Commission in developing a comprehensive and effective EU Anti-Corruption Strategy.

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  AMLA introduces a common EU approach to enforcing anti-money laundering rules

  AMLA

  July 9, 2026

  For the first time, supervisors across the EU will apply a harmonised, consistent approach to enforcing breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist-financing rules. AMLA's standards will advance supervisory convergence, so that the same breach in the same circumstances leads to the same enforcement outcome, wherever it happens.

  The same breach, the same response

  The new standards advance one of AMLA's core goals: harmonised, risk-based supervision across the EU. Until now, the same breach in the same situation could draw very different enforcement outcomes from one supervisor or country to the next. The new set of rules provides every supervisor with a common approach to assessing the gravity of breaches, leading to consistent enforcement outcomes across the EU while preserving proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness.