Compliance Financial News

PTI. The issue of Paytm Payments Bank is a case where a hard-charging and aggressive entrepreneur has failed to realise the need for regulatory compliance, and that no company can get away if it is non-compliant with the law, said minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, as per the PTI report. He also said that the RBI’s regulatory action on Paytm Payments Bank has drawn the attention of fintech firms to the importance of complying with the laws.

Paytm Payments Bank has drawn the attention of fintech firms to the importance of complying with laws, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said. The minister stressed that regulatory compliance cannot be «optional» for companies, rather it is an aspect every entrepreneur must pay full attention to. In an interview to PTI, Chandrasekhar — the minister of state for electronics and IT — said the issue of Paytm Payments Bank is a case where a hard-charging and aggressive entrepreneur has failed to realise the need for regulatory compliance, and that no company can get away if it is non-compliant with law. Any company, be it from India or abroad, big or small, has to abide by the law of the land, the Minister asserted amid the unfolding Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) crisis.

Jupiter Asset Management’s compliance team blocked its investors from having any exposure to a cryptocurrency exchange-traded product (ETP) in one of its Irish UCITs funds, according to a Financial Times report.

Firms have been quizzed based on size instead of concerns over their practices.

compliance team to attend product meetings to ensuring that every update or new product launch went through the rigours of the regulatory rules and restrictions, over the last one year or so, Paytm implemented a host of internal changes to toe the regulatory line, said executives at the digital payments company. At the same time, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the company’s founder, made it a priority for his team to focus on launching every industry update from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on priority, they said.

The talent shortage could be putting alternative fund managers at risk as they struggle to recruit compliance professionals for increasingly complex challenges.

NEW DELHI : Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collection of central and state governments will continue to grow at a faster pace than nominal GDP growth rate till very high tax compliance level is achieved, after which, the tax on consumption will grow in sync with the rate of economic expansion, Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said in an interview. Agarwal said that the nominal GDP rate will be dictating growth in GST revenue although presently there is a tax buoyancy above 1, which indicates compliance level is going up.

There was a sixfold jump in managing director level movement in legal and compliance functions in the financial services sector in the past one year, according to data from executive search firm Native.

Budget 2024, will be presented by the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on February 1, 2024. As always, all quarters of the economy has certain expectations from the Budget. A few key steps that would help to rationalise and simplify taxes are as follows: Rationalise and simplify withholding tax provisions TDS/TCS on purchase/sale of goods It is recommended that the TDS provisions of section 194Q and TCS provisions of section 206C(1H) be made applicable only to payees or payers who are not registered with GST. This will then align with the Government’s intention of widening and deepening the tax net. Alternatively, instead of TDS/TCS, the purchasers/sellers may be required to file Annual Information Returns. Also, in view of divergence between definition of ‘goods’ under Sale of Goods Act and GST law, ‘goods’ may be defined precisely with exclusion for items like shares, securities, foreign currency and actionable claims.

Interim Budget 2024 is expected to focus on several key sectors, including social welfare, agriculture, infrastructure, education, and healthcare. The budget may hint at long-term policy initiatives that the new government could pursue after the elections, including public-private partnerships in climate financing.

The benefits do not in any manner reduce the fulfilment and adherence to compliances, which if taken lightly, could also result in imprisonment of key personnel. Compliance is always viewed as a cost to an organisation hence the consistent approach to simplify fulfilment at the lowest cost possible making this a sweet spot for innovative technology solutions, and even more important from an SME perspective since this sector works on tight operating costs. “Reg Tech” is a common jargon in recent times which refers to regulatory compliance technology which could vary from simple tools which list the various compliances that an organization must adhere to in a checklist pattern to complex integrated platforms which use a combination of source systems and manual intervention to complete the end-to-end cycle of compliance fulfilment process.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said compliance with the advisory on deepfakes has been «mixed» from platforms, and added that tighter IT rules are likely to be notified in next 7 days to tackle the issue. The government, he said, had earlier made it clear to social media and online platforms that if its advisory on deepfake is not fully adhered to, new IT rules would follow. «There has been a mixed performance of compliance and I had said at the time of the advisory, that if we find that the advisory is not being followed through completely, we will follow it up with a very clear amended IT rules that will be notified,» Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for IT and Electronics, said on sidelines of an event.

India blocked access to websites of several offshore crypto exchanges, including Binance, Kucoin, OKX , Gate.io and many others on January 12 . This action followed the removal of these platforms from the Apple App Store in the country just a few days earlier.

Turkey’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Simsek, announced that Turkey is reportedly in the final stages of preparing a legal regulation for crypto assets. He also shared insights into the imminent cryptocurrency law and compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, emphasizing its broad definition.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken an action against Navsarjan Industrial Co-operative Bank Ltd., situated in Ankleshwar, District Bharuch, Gujarat, by imposing a monetary penalty of Rs 7.00 lakh. According to RBI, this penalty, enacted through an order dated December 14, 2023, has been imposed due to the bank's non-compliance with RBI directives on 'Placement of Deposits with Other Banks by Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs),' 'Reserve Bank of India (Know Your Customer (KYC)) Directions, 2016,' and the contravention of 'Section 26A (2) read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (BR Act).' The penalty is a result of the powers conferred on RBI under the provisions of Section 47A(1)© read with Sections 46(4)(i) and 56 of the BR Act. It is crucial to note that this measure is centred around deficiencies in regulatory compliance and does not pass judgment on the validity of any transactions or agreements entered into by the bank with its customers. The background leading to this penalty involves the statutory inspection of the bank conducted by RBI concerning its financial position as of March 31, 2022. Examination of the Inspection Report, Risk Assessment Report, and all related correspondence revealed multiple issues, including a breach of inter-bank gross and counterparty exposure limits, failure to conduct a review of risk categorization of accounts as per prescribed periodicity, and not transferring the eligible amount to the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund. In response to these findings, RBI issued a notice to the bank, instructing it to show cause as to why a penalty should not be imposed for the failure to comply with the mentioned directions and provisions of the BR Act. Follow

Binance.US, the American subsidiary of global cryptocurrency behemoth  Binance , has announced the appointment of Lesley O’Neill as its new Chief Compliance Officer. 

The cryptocurrency exchange OKX is introducing rules for its United Kingdom-based users in response to recent regulations introduced by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, has reported substantial growth in its user base, experiencing a 30% increase in users in 2023 while emphasizing its compliance with various regulations.

ALSO READ: RBI imposes monetary penalty on five co-operative banks. Details here Some even turned to experts for guidance and that is how training on compliance gained momentum in 2023.

Binance has completed a comprehensive SOC 2 Type II compliance audit, aiming to further enhance cryptocurrency security.

The expansion of the SEC’s Rule 35d-1, the “Names Rule,” to include ESG terms has led to the launch of a new tool to help asset managers and financial advisors assess compliance.