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On 30 November 2023, the Argentine Central Bank issued Communication “A” 7901, which introduces amendments to the regime for foreign exchange dealers, including limits for the sale of foreign currency to entities authorized to operate in foreign exchange and to related customers, as well as new obligations for foreign exchange dealers.

On 30 November 2023, the Central Bank of Argentina issued Communication “A” 7905, extending the effective date of certain modifications to the National Payments System related to immediate debit and the interoperability of credit card payments through Quick Response codes.

On 22 November 2023, the finalized regulations enacted under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) were published, with registration-related requirements expected to come into force beginning in November 2024 and the remainder in September 2025. The RPAA and Retail Payment Activities Regulations make up Canada’s new retail payment supervisory regime overseen by the Bank of Canada, Canada’s central bank.

In a ministerial response dated 31 August 2023, the French Minister of the Economy recently commented on the obligation for French tax residents to annually declare their foreign bank accounts, clarifying that the fact that a person holds a shareholding in a foreign company or is its corporate officer is not in itself sufficient to fall within the scope of this reporting obligation.

On 11 October 2023 the German Federal Government approved the Financial Crime Prevention Act, which shall come into force on 1 January 2024. The law will establish a new federal authority – the Federal Office to Combat Financial Crime. This new institution will have competences with respect to the fight of money laundering, sanctions and illicit financial flows.

Following its February 2023 consultation and call for evidence on a future financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, HM Treasury issued its policy statement on the wider cryptoasset regulatory regime on 30 October 2023. The policy update was published alongside a flurry of publications on the regulation of cryptoasset services, including interlinked policy documents covering regulation of fiat-backed stablecoins and the failure of systemic digital settlement asset (DSA) firms. This briefing covers the so-called “Phase 2” regulation of wider cryptoasset activities.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Act is a landmark development in the UK Government’s long-standing efforts to enhance the UK’s economic crime enforcement framework, and the Act introduces a number of important measures designed to improve corporate transparency and tackle economic crime in the UK
and abroad.

The last thirty days in September, the end of the US federal government’s fiscal year, is generally an important time to analyze enforcement activity by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this short video, Baker McKenzie Partner Peter Chan, a former SEC Assistant Director of Enforcement, provides his insights regarding the importance of the timing of some of these enforcement actions.