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Slush money stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts and other tax havens across the world has come into sharp focus again, with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Mr L.K. Advani, underlining the need to end banking secrecy in these countries.

India should become an active player in the global crusade against banking secrecy and tax havens, he said, reiterating that a BJP-led government would seek to bring back the country’s wealth from foreign shores and use it for developmental projects.

“The dimensions of the loot may be denied but not the fact of the loot,” he told mediapersons here on Friday.

He also unveiled the interim report of the party’s task force that, based on studies conducted abroad, estimated the Indian wealth in Swiss bank accounts and other tax havens to be between $500 billion or about Rs 25 lakh crore to $1.4 trillion or Rs 70 lakh crore.

The credibility of the estimate is reinforced by the $11.5 trillion (Rs 575 lakh crore) officially given by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at the G-20 Summit in London earlier this month, as the amount of global wealth parked in various tax havens, the report said.

via The Hindu Business Line : ‘Rs 70 lakh cr Indian money in Swiss banks, other havens’ .

The Canadian Government will provide an additional aid worth 330,000 USD for an on-going project to fight money laundering run by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vietnam.

An agreement to this effect was signed by Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister Leonard Edwards and UNODC Representative to Vietnam Narumi Yamada in Hanoi on April 17.

The sum has brought the total aid granted by Canada to the 1.03 million USD project to over 700,000 USD.

This move begins a new stage of the Canada-Vietnam cooperation in preventing financial flows from terrorist and criminal groups, said the Canadian Deputy FM at the signing ceremony.

According to Sen. Lieu. Gen. Le The Tiem, Deputy Minister of Public Security of Vietnam, the government has exerted efforts to fight crimes, particularly those involved in money laundering, adding a committee has been set up and a national strategy on the issue is being drafted.

The three-year project, beginning in July 2007, aims to help increase authorised agencies’ capacity in investigating and prosecuting money laundering crimes, and intensify information exchange and international cooperation.

In the first stage, the project with funding of more than 600,000 USD from the United Kingdom and Canada, helped train more than 500 law enforcement and judicial workers and completed a draft plan of action against money laundering to submit to the Government for approval.

According to the project’s coordinator Hon Chan, from now to 2010, the project will help train trainers in localities who in future will directly teach workers, thus increase the effectiveness of the project.

According to UNODC, money laundering crime has become a global issue having impacts on all countries over the world. Vietnam, with booming trade and investment activities, is in need of effective measures to cope with this crime.

via Canada finances anti-money laundering project in Vietnam.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 (Bernama) — Efforts to strengthen the anti-money laundering and the combating of the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime needs to be intensified to maintain financial stability, according to Bank Negara Malaysia.

Its deputy governor Datuk Zamani Abdul Ghani said robust AML/CFT regimes could benefit individual countries as enhanced financial sector integrity and stability facilitated their integration into the global financial system.

“They will also contribute to more transparent governance and effective fiscal administration,” he said in his keynote address at the International Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing Conference 2009 here today.

Zamani said the lack of AML/CFT regime could contribute to undermine the soundness and stability of financial institutions and systems, discourage foreign investment, and distort international capital flows.

“The global financial crisis amplifies such risks,” he said.

via BERNAMA – Bank Negara: Need To Strengthen Anti-money Laundering Efforts.

Fiserv, Inc. NASDAQ: FISV, the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that it was ranked as the top-selling provider of global anti-money laundering AML solutions by IBS Publishing. IBS determined the ranking by analyzing the AML market for the number of new name wins achieved in 2008. Fiserv topped the chart with 117 new name wins.

via Fiserv Ranked #1 in Anti-Money Laundering System Sales for Second Consecutive Year | SYS-CON CANADA.

“Detroit has, historically, been one of the more violent cities in the U.S.,” says Megan Wolfram, an analyst at iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a Maryland-based risk-assessment firm. “They have a number of local crime syndicates there–a number of small gangs who tend to compete over territory.”

Detroit was followed closely on the list by the greater Memphis, Tenn., and Miami, Fla., metropolitan areas. Those three were the only large cities in America with more than 950 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people.

via America’s Most Dangerous Cities – Forbes.com.

Indian Maoists hijack train

Maoists have taken over a train carrying about 300 passengers, on the eve of the second round of voting in Indian national elections.

At least 200 Maoists launched their raid on the train on Wednesday in Jharkhand province and forced the driver to take it to Latehar station, police said.

The group later fled into the jungle, after which police released passengers on the Mugalsaria to Barkakana train at Daltangunj railway station, Jharkhand.

via Al Jazeera English – CENTRAL/S. ASIA – Indian Maoists hijack train .

Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a ‘Nazi Bible’, in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese”.

Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

via Indian business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf – Telegraph.

Regulators Disclose Criteria for Bank ‘Stress Tests’

By ERIC DASH

Federal regulators released the criteria they used to assess the financial health of the nation’s 19 biggest banks on Friday, but provided little new information for investors to distinguish the industry’s weak players from the strong.

In a 21-page report, the Federal Reserve regulators broadly laid out the tools they used to project bank losses if the economy worsens, and officials established an unspecified baseline to measure how much additional capital the banks should add as a buffer against higher losses. But they provided no concrete metrics to assess the depths of the troubles facing the industry or specific banks.

Still, the Federal Reserve report suggested that regulators are focusing on the amount of capital that they want banks to hold in common stock, which makes it easier for them to absorb future losses as the recession wears on. That could force at least a handful of the 19 banks to raise significant amounts of new capital and could lead to greater government ownership stakes in the banks.

“Losses associated with the deepening recession and financial market turmoil have substantially reduced the capital of some banks,” the Federal Reserve report on the stress test said. “Lower overall levels of capital — especially common equity — along with the uncertain economic environment have eroded public confidence in the amount and quality of capital held by some firms, which is impairing the ability of the banking system to perform its critical role of credit intermediation. “

Despite the limited details, Wall Street analysts and traders are already using whatever glimmers of information that have seeped out to conduct their own “stress tests.” Investors are making bets on which bank stocks may rise or fall even before the official exam results are announced. The stress test criteria were released as federal regulators started briefing top executives from the 19 large banks about how their companies fared on the examination. In closed-door meetings at the regional Federal Reserve Bank offices, the regulators plan to review their preliminary findings and inform bankers if they need additional capital. The banks will have until Tuesday to dispute any of the results before they are made public on May 4.

via Regulators Disclose Criteria for Bank ‘Stress Tests’ – NYTimes.com.

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) – Doha Bank’s DOBK.QA New York branch has agreed to pay $5 million to settle charges by U.S. regulators that it did not adequately monitor suspicious activities related to fund transfers and other draft services, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on Tuesday.

The OCC and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said the Doha Bank branch did not have adequate controls in place to manage the risk of money laundering and other suspicious activity.

“It is critically important that institutions have effective systems in place to identify and report suspicious transactions in a timely manner, especially with regard to higher-risk products and services,” Comptroller John Dugan said.

via Doha Bank branch to pay $5 mln to settle US charges | Industries | Financial Services & Real Estate | Reuters .

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