An updated version of ‘Trade Finance Principles’ has been published. This is the first time since 2011 that the principles that provide frameworks and guidance for the management of financial crime risks (FCRs) have been updated.

Produced by the Wolfsberg Group, the International Chamber of Commerce and BAFT, the principles particularly focus on know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) policies.

Expectations and standards

The update is designed to reflect growing regulatory expectations, as well as the more stringent application of existing regulations faced by the financial services industry today.

The collaborative effort aims to help standardise the practice of financial crimes compliance for trade transactions.

‘Trade Finance Principles’ addresses several FCRs. These include but are not limited to, fraud, tax evasion, human trafficking, bribery and corruption, terrorist financing, the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

TBML focus

There is a specific focus on trade-based money laundering (TBML) in the updated version. This deals with the detection of unusual and potentially suspicious activities across transactional activities.

However, the scope of TBML in the principles is restricted to trade finance activity represented by documents contained in transactions.

The updated Trade Finance Principles can be found here.