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This paper aims to examine the current situation in Afghanistan after the rapid withdrawal of US troops and the Taliban takeover of the country, and how this has shed new light on the financing of terrorism.

Informal interviews were conducted with alleged perpetrators as well as formal interviews with compliance experts to further investigate the subject of terrorist financing in the wake of the latest changes in Afghanistan and terrorist financing through hawala banking. The interviewees were analysed through a qualitative analysis.

Based on the interviews, it was concluded that both illegal and legal sources of income could be used by terrorist financiers. This study also shows why hawala represents a significant challenge for counter-terrorist financing policies.

While existing literature sufficiently links parallel banking systems, such as hawala, to terrorist financing, this study shows the implications for Switzerland’s perceived commitment against financial crime in light of current changes in Afghanistan, and in addition, certain dogmatic weaknesses of Article 260^quinquies of the Swiss Penal Code are critically analysed.

This paper aims to demonstrate how illicit funds are being laundered through underground currency exchange networks.

Sixty interviews with money launderers and compliance officers were conducted to identify methods relevant to current money laundering issues. Further, a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers was administered.

The currency exchange method is highly suitable for money launderers with access to a criminal network. It may be used for placement or pre-placement. Evidently, the vast majority of compliance officers fail to recognize the utilization of this method in their daily business.

Implications are based on the statements of 60 interviewees, comprising both alleged money launderers and compliance officers.

The study identified gaps in anti-money laundering mechanisms. The documentation of said inconsistencies aims to provide compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with useful insights into the minds of money launderers.

Whereas most prior literature focuses on money laundering prevention methods, how money launderers operate is not illustrated. This study comprehensively overviews the issue by interviewing not only compliance officers but also money launderers. Understanding how money launderers operate is essential to effectively prevent money laundering. In particular, compliance officers must be able to view money laundering from the criminal’s perspective to sufficiently combat the issue.

The purpose of this study is to provide a firsthand perspective on the challenges and risks that can arise in arbitration proceedings.

To investigate the concrete methods money launderers use, a qualitative study was conducted with 10 alleged money launderers and 18 prevention experts. The results were then tested quantitatively, and it was concluded that among money launderers, the highly regulated financial sector is less popular than other sectors.

Money launderers relocate to unregulated sectors or offshore banks to avoid being questioned by compliance officers. Therefore, it is necessary for arbitrators involved in commercial or investor–state arbitration to have the expertise to readily identify the issues raised by these criminal law concepts and provide answers.

This paper examines the intersection between the areas of international commercial arbitration and money laundering, bribery, as well as embezzlement. At the same time, it draws attention to the need to analyze compliance issues in arbitration proceedings.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the Wirecard scandal has highlighted the need for further reforms in Germany and Europe, exposing institutional and market oversight weaknesses, particularly in terms of market integrity and investor protection.

To provide a comprehensive picture of the situation, this paper is based only on relevant studies, which focus on the topic of interest, namely, the context of the Wirecard collapse in June 2020. It also examines how internal and external governance and monitoring mechanisms failed to uncover major fraud within the German payments group earlier.

This study shows that this is by no means an isolated or unpredictable incident, and the allegations of accounting fraud had been known for several years, thanks to warnings from the Financial Times. In addition, the paper reviews the serious shortcomings revealed in the Wambach report. The report provided private details of the Wirecard audit and documents on the relationship between Wirecard management and the auditor. All of this can serve as a reference point for institutional and market oversight architecture in Germany and Europe and pave the way for future research.

The paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the implications of the Wirecard scandal and the lessons that can be learned from what was one of Germany’s biggest corporate scandals especially at a time when many are already affected by the impact of COVID-19 on the entire financial services industry.

This study aims to illustrate how bribery and fake news in Eastern European countries can affect businesses across Europe. Countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary represent sizeable and potential markets. Thanks to their European Union membership and low labor costs, these markets could offer many investment opportunities to international managers. Consequently, this study focuses on the challenge of corruption encountered by international managers and the necessary precautions before committing financial resources to these countries.

For this study, 10 informal interviews with presumed providers of illegal services were used to investigate the previously unexplored innovative research question. Informal interviews were conducted with individuals who can be assumed to have experience or knowledge in the field of corruption in multinational corporations.

The results show the potential impact of corruption on international managers in Eastern Europe.

This study contributes to the literature by examining two forms of corruption: bribing journalists to publish fake news to harm commercial rivals and bribing public officials to manufacture legal proceedings against business competitors. The following will also highlight how a corrupt judicial system can have implications abroad and what problems this may raise for mutual legal assistance.

This study aims to highlight the risks and threats posed by crowdfunding. It also looks at the new European Union regulation on crowdfunding, which is intended to give participants confidence that there will be specific minimum regulatory standards to protect parties against mis-selling issues affecting some platforms.

This paper is based upon a thorough literature review.

Crowdfunding is an essential alternative for financing commercial and non-commercial projects. Although it is a fast-growing digital financial tool, it can also be considered extremely risky. It can be an ideal platform for money laundering and can facilitate the financing of terrorism and fraud.

Crowdfunding is still in its infancy, so the literature has not yet sufficiently addressed the compliance risks of crowdfunding. As a result, there is a significant research gap. Thus, this study aims to analyse and propose suggestions to mitigate the risks that all crowdfunding stakeholders may face when deciding to participate in a crowdfunding activity or when they want to set one up.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nuances of the consequences of greenwashing in the consumer and financial markets. Greenwashing is discussed frequently but in very abstract terms. Hence, a closer examination of the palpable consequences elucidates the ripple effects of this widespread phenomenon.

Focal points are the concept of green marketing, the stigmatization of corporations in the media and the regulatory consequences of greenwashing behaviour across consumer and financial markets. The two markets are paralleled in order to trace the novelties as well as the points of commonality in greenwashing.

The current consequences are an insufficient deterrence in both markets. The regulatory trend in both markets is leaning towards more stringent and punitive measures, which will likely affect the efficacy of the deterrence factor.

The influence on consumer perception is identified both as a motivating factor for greenwashing and as one of the most immediate elements which is negatively influenced by its exposition. In addition to the fact that greenwashing practices are common across the two markets, this paper identifies that a systemic deterioration of investor trusts significantly compromises the potential of sustainable finance and impacts investment in the financial market, mirrored in the negative consequences on consumer reactions to greenwashed products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence that the occurrence of greenwashing has on the consumer perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This paper observed the market indication that a consistent undermining of authentic commitment to CSR taints consumer perception. Investigating how the motivations behind greenwashing contribute to the presentation of CSR was the first means of examining the market forces. Consumer orientation was used as a guiding principle to consider the short- and long-term perspective of a greenwasher.

Individual instances of greenwashing contribute to a collective deterioration of marketplace trust in the promises of CSR. The negative influence on CSR is not isolated to the greenwashing perpetrator but casts a wider effect. The consequences of greenwashing are not isolated but widely dispersed.

Whilst much of the literature focuses on the stigmatisation of individual firms, it is crucial to note how marketplace trust is eroded. In addition, the perception of CSR-related regulations is for example influenced but rarely recognised as a consequence of greenwashing behaviour.

The operational resilience of financial service providers is strained to an unprecedented extent following the Russian aggression in the Ukraine and the subsequent implementation of targeted economic sanctions. This paper aims to consider how operational resilience supports financial service providers in implementing sanctions.

The demand made of financial service providers by economic sanction is considered through the lens of operational resilience. Practical problems for the providers are aligned with economic sanctions policies.

A well-established system of operational resilience enables financial service providers to meet compliance requirements of economic sanctions with greater ease.

The literature does not credit operational resilience as a systemic capacity of corporations and rather presents it as a specialised feature. In addition, the role of the regulatory bodies is often dismissed despite directly inciting the practical problems faced.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between financial sustainability and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.

To do so, an extensive literature review on sustainability, FinTech, P2P lending and their associated risks was conducted using a fundamentally theoretical and descriptive methodology.

In addition, this study shows that finance can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon circular economy by allocating investments in sustainable projects and businesses. Moreover, FinTech P2P lending platforms can help to vitalize green digital finance by using the internet and information technology in the lending market. Nevertheless, anonymous lending and borrowing ventures can produce potential risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud risk and information asymmetry.

Sustainable finance remains an emerging and relevant area; however, the literature has not sufficiently addressed compliance concerns. To address this gap, this study aims to contribute to the literature by analyzing the link between sustainable finance and P2P platforms and drawing attention to the compliance risks listed above.