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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the subject of politically exposed persons (PEPs) and some of the major issues associated with them. PEPs as a specific category are receiving increased attention from governments, law enforcement agencies and international organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force. An increased academic and theoretical focus upon PEPs is required because there is considerable uncertainty about the specific definition of PEPs, how precisely they may be categorised, what the impacts of their activities are and how they might be countered.

This paper first discusses some of the ambiguities surrounding the definition of PEPs. The paper then emphasises the unsurprising reality that definitional confusion regarding PEPs contributes to uncertainty about their incidence and effects. The paper then highlights some of the key policy challenges in responding to PEPs and provides examples of good and bad practice in seeking to counter the activities of PEPs.

The paper concludes that it is important for governments and business organisations to be proactive about emerging risks relating to PEPs. However, experience suggests that it seems extremely difficult to segregate political contexts from how the harms and other problems associated with PEPs might be countered and that political expediency may be a defining overall factor in how responses to PEPs evolve.

The paper's originality and value lies in its efforts to link the definitional and political landscape surrounding the issue of PEPs, and to articulate that progress in the former is unlikely without open appraisal of the impacts of the latter.

The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines and inputs for the implementation of policies and procedures governing transactions and business relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs) under the anti-money laundering (AML) legal framework.

This paper reviews AML PEPs’ regime in the perspective of the European Union Directive (EU) 2015/849 of May 20, 2015; the Italian Legislative Decree no. 231 of November 21, 2007; and the “good practice” recommendations issued by the Bank of Italy. In particular, it provides an overview of EU and Italian legislation in connection with PEPs and describes “good practice” recommendations provided by the Bank of Italy to implement policies and procedures to properly perform transactions with PEPs and comply with AML legislation.

Bank of Italy’s “good practice” recommendations are an important tool for credit and financial institutions managing transactions and business relationships with high-risk counterparties such as PEPs. They shall help determine how to properly implement policies and procedures for an enhanced identification and verification of PEPs.

This paper provides useful information on how to draft policies and procedures in order to be compliant with AML legislation related to PEPs.

This study aims to evaluate and investigate the existing process of establishing a banking relationship with politically exposed persons.

This study used qualitative techniques of semi-structured interviews with senior compliance officers of financial institutes in Pakistan.

This study found that the existing mechanism of identification and verification of politically exposed persons (PEPs) is ineffective. Financial institutes face challenges like the quality of name screening data sets, cost of identification and verification, role and control of the regulator, the influence of politically exposed persons, the opaqueness of laws and international connections of the politically exposed persons. Further, financial Institutes are burdened by regulators to perform robust PEP customer due diligence but do not guide and provide the right tools.

This paper aims to find challenges faced by financial institutes before onboarding the PEPs. Further, very limited studies on this topic have been conducted in Pakistani context.

The study examines the relationship between the interaction of indigenous–foreign cultures and public employee performance (PEP) in the Ghanaian public sector due to the perceived unproductive cultures in the public sector.

The study employs a quantitative approach, where cross-sectional survey design is used to collect the data from Ghanaian public employees. The analysis is done using correlation and hierarchical regression techniques.

The results reveal that both indigenous and foreign cultures are pervasive in the Ghanaian public sector, with high power distance and individualism being dominant cultures. Furthermore, while the indigenous cultures have negative significant relationship with PEP, the foreign cultures have positive significant relationship with PEP. The foreign cultures effectively control the relationship between the indigenous cultures and PEP but insignificantly moderate such relationship.

The findings imply that deliberate attempts should be made to encourage the foreign cultures with attractive reward packages to induce workers. This will indirectly control the practice of the inimical cultures and ultimately reduce their negative effect on PEP.

The study contributes significantly to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence of the indigenous–foreign culture fit and PEP from a developing country, Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a process and impact evaluation of the Positief Educatief Programma (Positive Education Programme (PEP)), a whole school approach to supporting children’s well-being and creating a positive school climate in primary schools in the Netherlands. PEP adopts a competence skill enhancement approach with a focus on developing children’s positive emotions and strengths.

A process and impact evaluation was performed within the context of two schools piloting the programme. Employing questionnaires and interviews, the evaluation sought to examine the implementation of PEP, participants’ experiences with key components and the programme impact of PEP.

The findings reveal largely positive attitudes towards PEP. Staff and parents were positive about the core components of PEP. Results from standardised questionnaires provide preliminary evidence about the positive impact of PEP on children’s self-reported well-being and problem behaviour, teachers’ awareness of children’s strengths and overall school climate. The provision of practical strategies and activity-based resources was considered essential to the ongoing implementation of PEP.

This study reports on findings from two implementation schools and therefore lacks generalisability. Further research using more robust research methods exploring the effectiveness of PEP when compared with “business as usual” is needed.

School frameworks aimed at creating a positive school climate and promoting well-being at the whole school level have not been carried out in the Netherlands to date. The results from this study provide a unique insight into the implementation and perceived impact of a whole school framework in the context of two primary schools.

This paper aims to examine the effects of perceived external prestige (PEP) on deviant workplace behavior (DWB) and the mediating role of job satisfaction (JS).

The relationship was tested via hierarchical regression analyses. The study used data drawn from 401 employees of five-star hotels located in the Turkish cities of Ankara and Antalya.

The study findings suggest that there is a negative correlation between JS and organizational deviant work behaviors. Employees’ satisfaction leads to workplace harmony and brings employees closer to the purpose of the organization. Additionally, the study shows that positive PEP reflects positively on JS and vice versa. JS plays a mediating role between PEP and DWB.

The first limitation of the study is that the sample involves a specific area and, therefore, may not be generalizable. Additionally, the study contains only five-star hotels. Therefore, future researchers could replicate the findings with a heterogeneous population sample comprising employees of various hotels’ levels.

The external reputation of an organization (image) is an important subject for researchers, as it fosters organizational members’ JS, and higher PEP decreases members’ deviant work behavior. This empirical study focuses on hospitality employees because this group has not received attention from researchers, despite their importance as the top contributors to the high-level service industry.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze politically exposed persons (PEPs) according to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations and assess the identification process followed by financial institutions to create a harmonized regional model for PEPs identification in Latin America.

FATF Recommendation No.12 states that financial institutions should identify PEPs. To do so, the latter uses either an internal identification system or an external database. Within this framework, the purpose of the research work is to determine whether the procedure adopted by the regulated entities complies with the requirements of the regulations. Both analytical and interpretative methods have been used for this purpose.

In accordance with FATF Recommendation No.12, national and foreign PEPs, as well as officials of relevant international organizations, close relatives and closest associates must be identified. This wide range of people forms an hybrid type of PEPs. Because of the lack of a harmonized identification policy, it is likely that some people who meet these conditions may not be spotted.

PEPs control success relies on accurate and prompt identification. Therefore, it is crucial to create an inter-state model of harmonized identification at a regional level in Latin America. It includes not only the participation of the obligated subjects but also the sector entities associated to the concerned economic activity.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the risks posed by politically exposed persons (PEPs) and explain the money laundering risk when entering into financial transactions and business relationships with PEPs. Risk mitigation by regulated entities and corruption prevention strategies are also outlined. To minimise money‐laundering risks associated with PEPs, legislation will need to adapt to deal with threats that organized criminals and terrorists seek to exploit. Future directions for research in relation to PEPs are also identified.

An analysis of how regulated entities can reduce their risk of money laundering when entering into financial transactions and business relationships with PEPs is presented.

It was found that there is a need to harmonise legally enforceable obligations targeting PEPs. PEP monitoring, arguably, should be extended to individuals holding prominent public functions in their own jurisdictions, individuals exercising functions not normally considered prominent but who have political exposure comparable to that of similar positions at a prominent level, and individuals holding important positions in private sectors such as CEOs of listed companies. Regulated entities in the private sector need to play their part to mitigate their risks such as conducting ongoing environmental scans of risks of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

This paper improves awareness of the potential money laundering risks when entering into financial transactions and business relationships with PEPs and makes several recommendations to mitigate the risk posed by PEPs.

This paper aims to address the money laundering risk posed by politically exposed person’s (PEP’s) controlled legal entities. International standards and national legislation require enhanced due diligence of political office holders but no specific requirements exist on entities controlled by PEPs. While regulators expect the stringent AML risk mitigation regarding this type of entities, financial institutions have no guidelines to follow. This gap produces inconsistent due diligence measures applied to entities with significant PEPs’ connection.

The paper uses comparative analysis to identify discrepancies between legal requirements and their interpretation. Moreover, an empirical approach results in a standardised solution to address these discrepancies.

The paper defines the concept of politically exposed entities and the applicable due diligence framework. Anticipating legislative measures, it proposes to introduce this concept via best practices of financial institutions and private banking initiatives such as the Wolfsberg Group.

The research addresses the topic from a legal point of view. However, the implementation of proposed ideas depends on decisions which are political by nature and are not within the scope of this paper.

The paper aims at stimulating a debate in both the private and public sector to form a consistent approach to AML due diligence of legal entities associated to PEPs.

This paper responds to an identified need to study how legal entities connected to PEPs should be defined and monitored.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the concept of “politically exposed persons (PEPs)” as provided under the Indian anti-money laundering (AML) regime, particularly focussing on the Reserve Bank of India guidelines to its supervised banks on dealing with the potential money laundering risks posed by PEPs.

The definition of PEPs as provided by international standard setters and the concept as defined by the Indian AML regime was examined to examine the extend of the compliance of the Indian AML regime with the mandatory requirements of revised 2012 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and other international standards.

The paper clearly establishes that the current AML regime of India does not fully comply with the mandatory requirements of the revised 2012 FATF recommendations, and the RBI guidelines do not provide any clear indications to its supervised banks on the effective development and implementation of AML PEPs control. The paper argues that it is high time for India to increase its regulatory focus on the issue of PEPs and to expand its definition of PEPs by including both domestic PEPs and “close associates” of PEPs within the definition.

The paper demonstrates in an exceptional way that despite variations in the scope of the PEPs definition at an international level, all the standard setters have included certain key individuals (both domestic and foreign PEPs and “close associates” of PEPs) within the scope of the definition and how the legal and regulatory requirements in India are falling short of compliance even with these minimum key requirements. By adopting a step-by-step approach in critically examining the current legal and regulatory requirements enforced on banks in India to efficiently deal with the money laundering risks posed by PEPs, the paper makes a valuable contribution in highlighting the steps that might be taken to strengthen PEPs’ AML controls in India.