Sigma Insights

This week, media reports alleged that both the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI were investigating Danske Bank, Swedbank and SEB over potential breaches of U.S. anti-money laundering regulations and fraud.

This week, both the United States House of Representatives and Senate, through the “must-pass” annual defense spending bill, voted overwhelmingly to finalize reforms to the country’s AML framework through the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA).

Developed by the combined effort of our team of dedicated engineers and expert analysts we are so proud to be releasing the Sigma Risk API.

This week, Nasdaq announced a push for diversity requirements for company boards, which in its proposal to the SEC presented “an analysis of over two dozen studies that found an association between diverse boards and better financial performance and corporate governance.”

Firm Included Alongside World’s Most Innovative and Fastest Growing Regtech Companies for 2021.

Sigma Ratings has won Best Data Analysis Tool at the 6th Annual Benzinga Global Fintech Awards.

Sigma Ratings is thrilled to have been named the Best Data Analysis Tool at the 6th Annual Benzinga Global Fintech Awards this week and “recognized for the change [we] are making in the financial space.”

Over the last 8 months, the pandemic has brought significant uncertainty in global markets and in short and long term economic outlooks. Yet, despite the general uncertainty, it is predicted that COVID-19 will result in accelerated investing in at least one key industry....

After senior careers in the U.S. Treasury Department and in law and development finance, we founded Sigma in 2017 while studying at MIT to bring forward a new, data-driven risk view of companies globally...

Sigma Ratings announce that Fitch Group, the parent company of Fitch Ratings, as an investor in Sigma alongside FinTech Collective, Contour Ventures, and Barclays plc.

This week, the United States agreed to remove Sudan from its terror blacklist on the condition that the country’s transitional government compensate the victims of the East African U.S. embassy bombings.

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that many companies are experiencing “new risks or that existing risks have been exacerbated by the coronavirus.”

This week, the Council of the European Union published its latest EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, with two jurisdictions removed and another two added.

In the wake of the FinCEN Files , lawmakers and regulators around the world have reacted to the unprecedented leaks. Beyond the $2 trillion headlines, the shock to some partly stems from the sheer scale of jurisdictions exposed...

Sigma expands Address Risk coverage, releases new matching algorithm and improves search speed by 5x.

The leak and subsequent investigation of the FinCEN Files hit the financial services industry hard this past week - resulting in sharp declines in banking shares on Monday and a flurry of leaders calling for reform.

Among the startling findings in the FinCEN files were details on the time it took financial institutions to files SARs with FinCEN. Under regulation, banks are required to file SARs within 30 days of criminal activity being detected (and up to 60 days in some cases).

With the release of the FinCEN Files, what was a common denominator related to an international money laundering network, sanctioned in September 2015, that laundered billions of dollars for the world's biggest drug cartels and armed groups, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda?

Early in the pandemic, the FT, in response to the UK regulator sanctioning a digital KYC process, highlighted that “checking new client identities remotely amid the coronavirus lockdown makes financial firms more vulnerable to attempted money laundering, and regulatory guidance to accept ‘selfies’ and emailed documents amounts to ‘a fraudster’s charter’.”

This week, reports emerged that JPMorgan, in an internal memo, stated they’re investigating their own employees for “misusing Paycheck Protection Program loans.”

This week, the WSJ reported that trade sanctions were placed on dozens of Chinese firms in the last week. While the term ‘sanctioned’ might be construed as a prohibition on dealing with the entity in its entirety, the reality is more nuanced.

This week, the United States, in coordination with Panama, announced the formation of a new task force that will tackle financial crime in the Central American nation, and brings together prosecutors, regulators and law enforcement.

Last week, the International Journal of Finance and Economics published a study that appears to indicate that financial crime enforcement actions are correlated with an increase in bank risk on several measures of risk.

Last week, we reported on the newly released 2020 Basel AML Index and the importance of a more dynamic approach to country risk ratings, and risk in general. In Malta, which finds itself in the spotlight again this week in connection with the ongoing Wirecard scandal...

Last week, the Basel Institute on Governance released its 2020 edition of the Basel AML Index. And what a surprise it was to discover that the country identified as having the lowest risk of money laundering was Estonia...

This week, global firms find themselves in the crosshairs of increasing geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.