Australian bank Westpac has become the latest institution to fall foul of anti-money laundering rules after it was slapped with a record fine of A$1.3bn ($0.9bn) by the Australian regulator.

A remarkable leak detailing 17 years' worth of confidential transaction reporting has cast doubt on banks' anti-money laundering (AML) efforts by suggesting that leading banks continued to transfer money even when they knew it could be connected to fraud.

An Australian Senate Committee inquiry into fintech has put forth 32 recommendations to promote further competition in the financial sector, with a particular focus on regulatory impediments.

Source: BIS

In recent years, the growth of technology-related threats has increased the importance of banks' operational resilience.

Ireland's Central Bank has imposed a €1.66m fine on Bank of Ireland (BoI) for a regulatory breach that saw one of its subsidiaries transfer more than €100,000 to a hacker that had illegally accessed a client's email account.

European Union officials have suggested that there will be changes in the supervision of fintech firms in the wake of the £1.8bn accounting scandal at German payments firm Wirecard.

Stablecoins could be attractive to criminals and terrorists if they reach mass-adoption, warns the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which nevertheless concludes that its revised standards can mitigate the risks - as long as these new coins are centralised.