Sanctions and AML news: the wire for counterparty risk.

01 Regulation OCT 28, 2026

AED 20 million for the bank, AED 300,000 for its compliance head: UAE AML enforcement gets personal

In June 2026 the UAE Central Bank fined a foreign bank branch for repeated AML failures and fined its head of compliance as an individual. The lesson for every regulated firm is about proof, not paperwork. 2 MIN 02 Product OCT 28, 2026

Buying sanctions screening software? Five tests a search box fails

Every demo looks the same: paste a name, watch it light up, get a clean tick. A counterparty is not a name, and the exposure usually sits a layer or two below the entity you onboard. 2 MIN 03 Sanctions watch OCT 22, 2026

A name match is not PEP screening: three gaps in commodity and DNFBP onboarding

Most teams run one name against a global PEP list, get a green tick and move on. The exposure usually sits with the people around that name. 2 MIN 04 Regulation OCT 21, 2026

An ACSP badge verifies identity. It does not verify your counterparty.

Authorised Corporate Service Providers can verify identities for Companies House. That confirms who a person is, not who owns the company or whether anyone in it is sanctioned. 2 MIN 05 Regulation OCT 15, 2026

Companies House identity verification: the transition ends in November. What it changes for UK counterparties

Every existing director and PSC of a UK company has a personal due date, and the twelve-month transition closes in mid-November 2026. A verified director makes a better register, not a finished due diligence file. 2 MIN 06 Regulation OCT 14, 2026

No US registry to lean on: beneficial ownership is back on your desk

FinCEN's final rule ended beneficial ownership reporting for US companies for good. For most US counterparties, no federal filing will tell you who the real owner is. 2 MIN 07 Product OCT 13, 2026

Forty alerts, thirty-nine false: screening that holds up in both directions

Sanctions and PEP screening fails two ways: a real match slips through, or analysts drown in noise and clear the real one with the rest. 2 MIN 08 Regulation OCT 7, 2026

goAML registration is a form. The report is the test.

Most UAE firms plan for getting registered on goAML. Few plan for the day they have to file, or explain why they did not. 2 MIN 09 Product OCT 6, 2026

Show me your decision: counterparty approvals you can reconstruct months later

Approving a high-risk counterparty over email works until a regulator asks who made the call, and why. Then it is not an answer. 2 MIN 10 Product OCT 1, 2026

Who signed off on your last counterparty? Why approval should never be a one-person job

If the analyst who built the file is also the only person who approved it, you do not have a process. You have a single point of failure. 2 MIN 11 Product SEP 30, 2026

Your compliance team should not be a data-entry team

Every onboarding buries an analyst under documents that get retyped by hand, field by field. The document already holds the answer. The job is reading it, not retyping it. 2 MIN 12 Sanctions watch SEP 29, 2026

Verify once, or keep it current? Why counterparty risk is a cycle

The counterparty you verified last year may not be the same one today. Regulators have stopped treating due diligence as a one-off event, and the checks have to follow. 2 MIN 13 Product SEP 24, 2026

Forty minutes per trade licence, multiplied by every counterparty you onboard

Manual document review is where onboarding time goes, and where errors live. What changes when the documents are read for you. 2 MIN 14 Sanctions watch SEP 23, 2026

A vessel's paperwork can look perfect. Who owns it is the real question

In maritime trade, sanctions risk rarely sits on the certificate. It sits in the ownership chain around the hull, and in what the flag history says about it. 2 MIN 15 Regulation SEP 22, 2026

Small invoices, bigger obligations: the AED 100,000 line most teams miss

From 1 October 2026, UAE supplier verification is not only a big-deal concern. The threshold is crossed quietly, one small invoice at a time. 2 MIN 16 Regulation SEP 17, 2026

UAE VAT supplier verification starts 1 October: what FTA Decision No. 13 requires

From 1 October 2026, VAT-registered businesses in the UAE must verify a supplier before deducting input VAT. Who is covered, the three spend thresholds and what the viral posts get wrong. 5 MIN 17 Regulation SEP 17, 2026

FinCEN makes it permanent: US companies are out of beneficial ownership reporting

A final rule effective 14 August 2026 removes US companies and US persons from Corporate Transparency Act reporting for good. Why that puts more weight on your own ownership checks. 3 MIN 18 Regulation SEP 16, 2026

Your suppliers are your responsibility, and a trade licence PDF is not diligence

Regulators increasingly expect the same diligence on the companies you buy from as on the customers you sell to. Most procurement files are not built for that. 2 MIN 19 Sanctions watch SEP 15, 2026

Clean today, sanctioned tomorrow: screening is not a box you tick once

You run the name, it comes back clear, you sign. Six months later the same entity is on a list and nobody notices until it is a problem. 2 MIN 20 Regulation SEP 14, 2026

You know the company. You know the CEO. But who actually owns it?

The person who signs the contract is not always the person who controls the company, and three separate rulebooks now say the difference is your problem. 2 MIN 21 Regulation SEP 11, 2026

The documents check out. They still do not tell you who owns the company

Holding, subsidiary, trust, nominee. By the time ownership passes through a few layers, a folder of corporate documents stops answering the question that matters. 2 MIN 22 Sanctions watch AUG 6, 2026

Shadow fleets, shell layers: reading the largest vessel designation waves

Designation waves now list a hundred tankers at a time. What the ownership structures behind the shadow fleet mean for maritime screening. 6 MIN 23 Regulation JUL 28, 2026

EU AMLR countdown: what "obliged entity" will mean for commodity desks

The 2027 rulebook lands harder on trading houses than most expect, starting with who counts as a customer. 5 MIN 24 Product JUL 21, 2026

Continuous monitoring now re-screens on ownership events, not just list updates

A UBO change is a screening event. KYCK now treats it as one, automatically. 3 MIN 25 Sanctions watch JUL 9, 2026

Price-cap enforcement is shifting from flags to insurers

Recent designations target P&I cover, not vessels. What that means for charterers screening fixtures. 4 MIN 26 Company JUN 30, 2026

KYCK in Abu Dhabi: closer to the desks we screen for

A base in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, puts the team in the same working day as most of our maritime and commodities customers. 2 MIN 27 Regulation JUN 17, 2026

FinCEN beneficial ownership rule: the 25% threshold survives

The long-argued cut-off stays. Who has to report, and when, does not. 5 MIN