Saying goodbye to 2025, we are here to fill you in on the compliance highlights of the last quarter. Once more the year comes to a close with outcomes and guidance from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), aims and ambitions from the European Union and regulators tightening national AML frameworks as is happening in the United Arab Emirates — more on all this below.
Less than 15 days until the new year. In 2026, will your next colleague be an AI agent?
💡Industry news worth knowing
On the international scene, earlier this quarter the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)held its latest FATF Plenary in Paris with key outcomes highlighted below.
Key outcomes:
- Grey List Updates: Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa have been removed from the list, while no jurisdictions have been added.
- New “Horizon Scan”: the FATF report warns of how criminals can exploit generative AI and AI agents for illicit activities, such as using deepfakes at scale for cyber fraud recommending strengthening of safeguards against emerging risks.
- Strengthened Asset Recovery Standards: the new guidance aims to address low levels of recovery of criminal assets around the world, giving jurisdictions a more robust toolkit for asset recovery.
Recently, the European Commission has also made changes to the EU list of high-risk countries aligning with FATF decisions to strengthen the region against financial crime. Notably, Bolivia and British Virgin Islands have been added to the list, while Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania have been removed.
We urge institutions to take the FATF outcomes into consideration making the necessary changes to align with the global standards for compliance.
In Brussels earlier this month, Bruna Szego, Chair of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), appeared before the joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) to present the progress and the long-term strategic goals of the AMLA:
- Ambition: striving to deliver a robust AML/CFT framework across Europe
incorporating best practices. - Cooperation: enhancing ongoing collaboration and data sharing with national authorities, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and other EU bodies for greater effectiveness across the European AML system that the AMLA is a part of.
- Technology: maintaining a forward-looking stance on the use ofinnovative tools, such as AI-powered solutions for global AML.
- Global leadership: positioning the EU as a reference point in international AML/CFT efforts with cross-border defense safeguards in place.
This comes at a time when the Basel AML Index 2025 observes a regional shift in the EU showcasing a weakening in financial transparency and a slight increase in corruption and fraud that needs to be addressed.
The Basel AML Index measures the risk of money laundering and related financial crimes in jurisdictions across the globe, indicating international, regional and national patterns worth taking note of, such as the levelling of financial crime risks globally and the emergence of new-age risks.
In the United Arab Emirates, now in force, the Federal Decree by Law No.(10) of 2025 Regarding Anti-Money Laundering, and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and Proliferation Financing, strengthens efforts to maintain their removal from the FATF grey list earlier this year.
Key changes:
- Fines doubled for legal entities reaching AED 100 million for financial crimes and up to AED 10 million for inadequate customer due diligence.
- Statute of limitations removed for money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing offenses, meaning that authorities can initiate proceedings indefinitely and offenses do not lapse over time.
- Corporate accountability strengthened with stricter governance obligations for management and senior leadership. Legal entities can be held criminally liable and individuals personally liable for AML shortcomings.
- Asset freezes tightened as authorities can order freezing of suspected funds without prior notice for up to 30 days, while affected parties have a short 14-day appeal window.
- Scope expanded covering predicate offenses with lower evidentiary thresholds, while virtual assets and VASPs are completely integrated into the framework.
These changes also included in the CBUAE Rulebook reflect heightened scrutiny for AML/CTF in the United Arab Emirates that calls upon regulated entities to tighten up their safeguards, tools and processes to avoid finding themselves reprimanded by the Regulators.
📌 In case you missed it…
norbloc is awarded RegTech Solution of 2025
norbloc is proud to be in the spotlight for our RegTech solutions, recognizing the ongoing impact that norbloc has on KYC/KYB compliance and how customer data is handled and shared globally every single day.
With the annual cost of compliance estimated from $73 million per institution up to $500 million for larger banks across the globe, there is still a long way to go with customer due diligence processes as data siloes, fragmented solutions and regulatory complexity persists.
In one market alone, norbloc has saved clients more than $250 million in compliance costs, while supporting more than 300,000s SMEs gain access to banking through fast onboarding and verification.
Alkisti Rocanas, Business Development & Marketing Manager at norbloc said:
“We are delighted to be part of the Startupper Awards 2025. This is recognition of the impactful work we do at norbloc in markets beyond Greece, but also of our lasting relevance as economic and compliance priorities shift in Greece, in Europe and beyond.“
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