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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

In 2019, FIU-the Netherlands celebrated its 25th anniversary. This study takes the occasion to reflect on the role of the FIU in financial surveillance and to describe its core practices of collecting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence.

Because FIU practices are often secret and its transaction data classified as state secrets, the FIU’s daily operational activities remain obscure. Drawing on interviews, public reports and an online training course, this study encircles secrecy and offers a fine-grained analysis of the FIU's core activities.

The article finds that the FIU plays a pivotal role in financial surveillance because it can operate at various intersections. An FIU operates at the intersection of finance and security, in between the public and private sector and at the national and international domain. This pivotal role makes the FIU indispensable in the surveillance of payment systems and spending behavior.

The article poses that the desirability and effectiveness of financial surveillance has to date not received sufficient consideration, while it affects (the privacy of) anyone with a bank account. The article asks: is it ethically justifiable that transaction information is declared suspect, investigated, and shared nationally and internationally, without the individual or entity concerned officially being notified and legally named a suspect?

This case-study is not only relevant for the study of finance/security, AML/CFT and financial surveillance, but also to policy makers and the broader public who merit an understanding of how their financial behaviour is being surveilled.

Blockchain holds promise as a potential solution to the problem of cybersecurity in financial transactions. However, difficulty exists for both the industry and organizations in assessing this potential solution. Hence, it is important to understand how organizations in the financial sector can address these concerns by exploring blockchain implementation for financial transactions in the context of cybersecurity. To do this, the problem question is threefold: first, what objectives are important based on the strategic values of an organization for evaluating cybersecurity to improve the security of financial transactions? Second, how can they be used to ensure the cybersecurity of financial transactions in a financial organization? Third, how can these objectives be used to evaluate blockchain as a potential solution for enhancing the cybersecurity of organizations in the financial sector relative to existing cybersecurity methods? The paper aims to discuss this issue.

To accomplish this goal we utilize Keeney’s (1992) multi-objective decision analytics technique, termed value-focused thinking (VFT), to demonstrate how organizations can assess a blockchain solution’s value to maximize value-add within financial organization.

The presented model clearly demonstrates the viability of using Keeney’s (1992) VFT technique as a multi-criteria decision analysis tool for assessing blockchain technology. Further, a clear explanation of how this model can be extended and adapted for individual organizational use is provided.

This paper engages both the academic literature as well as an expert panel to develop an assessment model for blockchain technology related to financial transactions by providing a useful method for structuring the decision-making process of organizations around blockchain technology.

To describe and analyze a proposed rule recently issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that would overhaul the use of derivatives and financial commitment transactions by registered investment companies and business development companies.

This article summarizes the various aspects of the proposed rule, discusses the elements of the proposed rule in greater detail, explains the effect of the proposed rule on existing guidance from the SEC and its staff, and notes the potential transition period for any final rule.

While the proposed rule is subject to public comment and subsequent consideration by the SEC and its staff, if the proposed rule is adopted in its current form it would result in sweeping changes for registered investments companies and business development companies.

This article contains a detailed overview of a recent SEC rule proposal regarding the use of derivatives by registered investment companies and business development companies and practical guidance from experienced asset management lawyers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the obligation of regulated entities to detect unusual and suspicious transactions and to report them to external control bodies, as established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations, the European Community Directive and also the Spanish regulations for the Prevention of Money Laundering. This research paper also aims to create a model to identify and report suspicious transactions to improve financial institutions’ current procedures.

According to the Spanish regulations which comply with the FATF recommendations and the European Community Directive on the Prevention of Money Laundering, regulated entities must detect unusual and suspicious transactions. Within this framework, the present research work analyzes both criteria and procedures used by the regulated entities to report suspicious operations. It also assesses the efficiency of the reports sent to an external control body. For this purpose, both analytical and interpretative methods are used in this research paper.

In Spain, the current procedures followed by regulated entities to analyze unusual transactions are complex. This results in difficulties to report suspicious transactions involving money laundering. As a consequence, the cases of suspicious transactions reported to the external control body are often unclear and the related process is inefficient.

The creation of a harmonized model with the aim of detecting suspicious operations and analyzing them will improve the detection and the effectiveness of the suspicious operations procedure which are reported to the external control body. However, such unified model should take into account the currently used activities proposed by each financial institution.

This paper aims to illustrate how virtual assets are used in such criminal offenses as money laundering and seeks to study the role of financial intelligence (monitoring) of transactions with virtual assets effectively in combating money laundering.

This research methodology includes system and structural methods that help analyze the theoretical, organizational and legal bases of the financial intelligence (monitoring) of transactions with virtual assets. The authors use the doctrinal legal research approach to analyze and describe the legislation connected to the financial intelligence (monitoring) operations with virtual assets. To identify critical issues of understanding the “virtual assets” and “cryptocurrency” essence, the peculiarities of the scientific community views on the given definitions, the authors use the method of terminological analysis and concepts operationalization. The authors use the extrapolation method to determine the possibility of implementing the analyzed best practices of foreign countries in the domestic practice of financial intelligence (monitoring) of transactions with virtual assets as an effective way in combating money laundering.

This study demonstrates the role of financial intelligence (monitoring) of transactions with virtual assets as an effective way to combat money laundering.

The article is devoted to comprehensively studying “virtual assets” and “cryptocurrency” concepts. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of these two concepts with the definition of their features and the main characteristics and features that separate them from each other. The authors also stressed the need for countries to strengthen the requirements for situations and activities with virtual assets, where there is a high level of risk in a risk-based approach.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the techniques used by Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) to shift conventional instruments to Shariah-compliant instruments. The paper additionally aims to explore the effect of these techniques on financial reporting.

The study recognized two techniques used by the IFI: the combination of contracts which compartmentalizes the economic transaction into a series of linked sub-transactions, and the inclusion of donation (Tabarru) in commercial contracts. The paper also reviews the accounting treatment according to the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and compares it to the concepts adopted by the traditional financial reporting framework concepts (especially substance over form concept).

With regard to the combination of contracts technique, the major accounting challenge is whether the substance over form concept is considered. Mixed results are found: in some products, the economic substance is presented in the financial reports, while in other cases, the legal form of the contract is reported. This ambiguity may hinder the faithful representation of financial statements. The Tabarru contract is used to justify the risk-shifting practices by Islamic banks. The accounting effects of such contracts may result in failure to recognize assets or liabilities in the financial reports, earnings management and incomplete financial information for the users of the financial reports.

This study is a response to the call raised by the consultative group established by the International Accounting Standards Board. It provides an additional insight into the accounting treatments for a combination of contracts and Tabarru contracts. It also contrasts the accounting treatments, as stipulated by the AAOIFI, with the conventional accounting frameworks.

In the light of the risks involved in related party transactions, transparent disclosure is particularly important. The impact of related party transactions is relevant for all types of company, but there is greater complexity in business groups where they can be easier to hide. Focusing on business groups, this study aims to analyze the accuracy and transparency of related party transaction information, its understandability, compliance with legislation and comparability. It also examines whether shareholders can be fully informed of all related party transactions by reading only the consolidated financial statement.

Three case studies are used. The units of analysis are three corporate groups in which the parent company is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange as of 1 July 2015. The authors use two different sets of information. The first is secondary data from company procedures, annual reports and other official documents. They analyzed the separate financial statement of each firm, including the separate financial statement of the parent company and compared all relevant information from the consolidated financial statement and the separate financial statement. The second set is primary data from face-to-face semi-structured interviews and observation.

This study underlines that there is no requirement for a specific classification of related party transactions disclosure, and as a consequence, it is not possible to compare information. An unambiguous framework for disclosure, established by regulation or legislation, for use by companies supplying related party transactions information would be useful.

The results offer possible recommendations for regulators to improve presentation of related party transaction information without increasing the amount of information required.

The paper's aim is to research and discuss the issue of the lack of transparency in financial reporting and how companies take advantage of accounting rules in ways that inhibit transparency.

A literature review was carried out to see what had been written and discussed. Various legal cases were studied as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) studies of the impact of off‐balance‐sheet arrangements allowed by the FASB and SEC.

There are many ways that companies accomplish off‐balance‐sheet financing by taking advantage of rules‐based accounting. If there is not a rule to prevent an entity from handling a particular transaction a certain way, then it is difficult for the auditor to stop it from happening.

The paper is of descriptive nature. There are many policy implications from the results of the paper for all regulatory agencies. The economic substance of transactions needs to be communicated.

Financial managers and financial consultants need to refocus the structuring of financial transactions so that they comply with generally accepted accounting principles and that the economic substance of financial transactions is communicated. More accountability and ethical awareness needs to be instilled in the individuals who deceitfully structure financial transactions. Regulatory bodies need to ensure more transparency by closing loopholes and better enforcement of accounting standards. Boards of directors, especially the audit committees, need to be sure that a company is communicating the true economic reality of the financial transactions and financial position of the business entity. Off‐balance‐sheet financing is one of the most significant ways, among others, that the user of financial statements can be misled. It is time for regulatory bodies to eliminate overly rules‐based standards, clearly state the economic objective of each standard, and require firms to disclose the economic motivations for the accounting practices they adopt.

The value of the paper is that it studies the problems of the lack of transparency in financial reporting. It then suggests that if what is currently being done, (i.e. rules‐based accounting), is not working, then a new approach, principles‐based accounting needs to be implemented by the regulatory agencies. This paper provides an overview of the lack of financial statement transparency.

The purpose of the paper is to offer an analytical framework for the Treating Customers Fairly initiative of the Financial Services Authority. The TCF agenda is set in the context of theory of consumer behaviour. The central theme is that retail financial transactions are fundamentally different from most other economic transactions made by retail consumers and to an extent that means the consumer needs to have Trust and Confidence in the products purchased and the suppliers of financial products and services. A distinction is made between different types of products and also between the degree of need for Trust and the extent to which the consumer actually does have Trust and Confidence when making decisions. The inculcation of Trust and Confidence needs to become a central strategic issue in financial firms and can be addressed by initiatives of collective self regulation rather than more prescriptive regulation.