Improving the detection and reporting of suspicious financial transactions: the Spanish case

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the obligation of regulated entities to detect unusual and suspicious transactions and to report them to external control bodies, as established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations, the European Community Directive and also the Spanish regulations for the Prevention of Money Laundering. This research paper also aims to create a model to identify and report suspicious transactions to improve financial institutions’ current procedures. Design/methodology/approach According to the Spanish regulations which comply with the FATF recommendations and the European Community Directive on the Prevention of Money Laundering, regulated entities must detect unusual and suspicious transactions. Within this framework, the present research work analyzes both criteria and procedures used by the regulated entities to report suspicious operations. It also assesses the efficiency of the reports sent to an external control body. For this purpose, both analytical and interpretative methods are used in this research paper. Findings In Spain, the current procedures followed by regulated entities to analyze unusual transactions are complex. This results in difficulties to report suspicious transactions involving money laundering. As a consequence, the cases of suspicious transactions reported to the external control body are often unclear and the related process is inefficient. Originality/value The creation of a harmonized model with the aim of detecting suspicious operations and analyzing them will improve the detection and the effectiveness of the suspicious operations procedure which are reported to the external control body. However, such unified model should take into account the currently used activities proposed by each financial institution.

Regulating for Australia's Youngest Workers

Child labour is a phrase associated with exploitation, poverty, insufficient education and various forms of physical abuse. These connotations do not match Australian perceptions about the employment of children and are not correlated with mainstream dialogue on teenagers in part time and casual employment. Child employment is an accepted part of Australian society, with older children making up a significant portion of the workforce. Minimum standards are increasingly regarded a critical safeguard for young Australians at work, evidenced by recent state level statutory amendment and enactment of dedicated legislation. This article makes two submissions; first, it suggests the regulation of young people's working conditions is inappropriately neglected at national level in Australia, and secondly, it proposes national standards should be set and equated with those in other developed economies, meeting international standards. The 1994 European Community Directive on the Protection of Young Workers is referred to as a suitable benchmark.

Content of Toxic and Essential Metals in Canned Mussels Commonly Consumed in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Concentrations of three toxic heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Cd) and six essential heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni) were determined in mussel conserves (Mytilus galloprovincialis, Bivalvia, Mollusca) consumed habitually by individuals in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). A total of 600 samples were analyzed, corresponding to six different commercial brands and four different processing types: pickled sauce (mixture of olive oil, vinegar, red pepper, laurel, and salt), coquille St. Jacques sauce (coquille St. Jacques broth), nature (water and salt), and bionature (water, salt, and soluble vegetal fiber). Samples were collected weekly from markets in Santa Cruz de Tenerife during a 12-month period. All values for toxic metals were lower than the permitted maximum for human consumption as proscribed in European Community Directive 2001/22/CE (1,000 μg/kg wet weight for Pb and Cd) and European Community Decision 93/351/EEC (500 μg/kg wet weight for Hg). For the six essential heavy metals, mussels are a very good source, contributing high percentages of the recommended daily allowance.

The Negotiation of the European Community Directive on Racial Discrimination

The Starting Line Group, a coalition of non-governmental organisations, has pressed for the adoption of European legal measures against all forms of racial discrimination since the early nineties. Isabelle Chopin and Jan Niessen chronicled the activities of the Starting Line Group in the European Journal of Migration and Law (EJML 1-1999, EJML 2-2000 and EJML 3-2001). In June 2000, the Council of Ministers adopted the Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial and ethnic origin. The adoption of this European legal measure marks the end of the Starting Line campaign and the Starting Line Group has discontinued its activities. The incorporation of the Directive in the laws of the member States and the Accession States is the beginning of the design or reinforcement of national legislation against racial and ethnic discrimination. The following article is on the final stages of the process leading to the adoption of a legal anti-discrimination measure, namely the negotiations among Member States on the Commission's proposal for a Directive. NGO's hardly played a role in those negotiations and were certainly not sitting around the negotiation table. Therefore this article is not written from an NGO perspective but from the perspective of an official of the European Commission participating in the negotiations. His article provides useful information on how the final text of the Directive came about.