Payment rails and shipping lanes in the frame.

Under Operation Economic Outcast, OFAC added 6 individuals, 27 entities and 22 vessels to the SDN List under its Iran programmes. Treasury says the 17 vessels and 17 companies it designated moved Iranian crude, petroleum and petrochemicals to South and East Asia. Several tankers fly African flags, among them Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Comoros and Tanzania. General License EE allows a wind-down with India's Samudra Marine Services, and two vessels sold to non-sanctioned operators were delisted.

The UK designated 23 entities and 3 individuals and specified 12 tankers under its Russia regime (RUS3753 to RUS3790). The payments strand includes Bishkek processor OJSC Processing KG, whose parent the UK records as the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance, its director, Tokenspot and Tsunami Payments, and Vancouver-registered Xeltox Enterprises, named as owner of the Cryptomus platform, which the UK says continues as Heleket. OFSI allows dealings with Zarubezhneft to be wound down until 21 November.

OFAC designated Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based battalion deputy in Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, with two France-based fundraisers, Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid, and the charities they set up, Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux. Treasury says the three raised more than $2 million for Hamas between 2020 and 2026, $1.5 million of it after 7 October 2023, and that Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Zaq in cryptocurrency.

OFAC removed 125 entries from the SDN List: 80 under the Colombia narcotics programme, 41 under the former Iraq regime programme, 3 Venezuelans and 1 Belarusian. Treasury says those removed include deceased people, defunct companies and entries with too little information to screen against reliably. OFAC also rewrote 22 live entries: 16 Mexican Kingpin Act designees gained a CURP number, three Hong Kong companies lost their addresses and three tankers were renamed or reflagged.

The Federal Reserve issued a consent order against American Express Company and its Travel Related Services unit after finding significant deficiencies in enterprise-wide financial crimes risk management, including transaction monitoring, fraud referrals and third-party risk assessment. The OCC issued a separate cease-and-desist order, and American Express disclosed that its national bank agreed to a $350 million civil money penalty. Plans are due within 90 days, including an OFAC compliance plan.

De Nederlandsche Bank found serious shortcomings in ongoing customer monitoring between 1 January 2023 and 16 July 2024. DNB says Modulr Finance B.V. relied heavily on intermediary partners, received very large amounts without sufficient clarity on their origin, and missed large amounts made up of multiple transactions because no single one breached its thresholds. The fine, decided on 30 September, reflects a 15% reduction under a simplified settlement from €849,600; the firm will not object.

FinCEN withdrew its October 2023 proposal to treat international convertible virtual currency mixing as a class of transactions of primary money laundering concern, and its December 2020 proposal on recordkeeping and reporting for unhosted wallet transactions. It cites public comments and the President's Working Group report on digital assets. FinCEN still says illicit actors use mixers and that it will keep monitoring mixer activity.

AMLA opened a consultation on draft standards for an EU-wide AML/CFT database, the single point where supervisors will report and retrieve information on obliged entities, including breaches above a materiality threshold. AMLA says it adds no new reporting costs for firms; a public hearing is set for 3 November. The same day, AMLA asked the Commission's MiCA review to look at staking, lending and borrowing, DeFi control, unauthorised stablecoins and certain token issuers.