Category: Middle East

Regulatory Watch News

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  AMLA finalises common formats for FIU cooperation and reporting to the EPPO

  AMLA

  July 3, 2026

  Better reporting to the EPPO

  Two of the standards set a single format for reporting to the EPPO, the body that investigates and prosecutes crimes against the EU's financial interests. One covers how FIUs report the results of their own analyses, the other how AMLA reports joint analyses. A shared, machine-readable template will allow the EPPO to receive complete, comparable information it can process automatically.

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  MAS Partners Industry to develop Safeguards for AI Agents in Finance

  MAS

  July 3, 2026

  Singapore, 3 July 2026… The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), together with leading financial institutions and FinTechs, today published an industry white paper on developing safeguards for AI agents in Finance. Titled “Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR) ”, the paper proposes an industry-developed framework that enables AI agents in financial services to carry out financial tasks safely, securely and reliably. SAFR is developed under MAS’ BuildFin.ai^[1] initiative, which supports the responsible development and deployment of AI solutions in the financial sector.

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  AUSTRAC finalises enforceable undertaking with Sportsbet

  Austrac

  July 3, 2026

  AUSTRAC has finalised its enforceable undertaking with Sportsbet Pty Ltd (Sportsbet) after the company addressed serious deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) controls. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said the outcome reinforces AUSTRAC’s expectation that reporting entities take immediate and sustained action to meet their legal obligations. “When AUSTRAC identifies systemic weaknesses in a reporting entity’s AML/CTF controls, we will take enforcement action to ensure those issues are addressed,” he said. “Sportsbet was required to undertake significant remediation to uplift its systems, controls and governance. AUSTRAC is now satisfied those requirements have been met.