Anti-money laundering policy: A response to the activity of criminals or of agencies?

The narrative within this chapter is built around the twin agencies of the FSA and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and their role in AML, recognising that both agencies now exist in a different form. Thus we consider the ‘matrimonial’ relationship between the regulators and the regulated entity that is internal to the financial markets. We further consider how both relate to the police enforcement agency, an agency that is external to the financial markets and in our metaphor is the silent jealous lover. It is the external enforcement agency that we suggest to be the ultimate beneficiary of the outcome of their joint compliance effort. This is played out through the regulatory ‘rituals’ that define the terms of engagement for the different sides, where each knows the rules, how they should be adhered to and both benefit from their continued existence; tending towards a mutual support for the status quo. Indeed, their relationship can be viewed as that of a married couple where the initial ardour has long since departed but they stay together in mutual tolerance because their history is jointly constructed and co-dependent such that one could no longer envisage life without the other. It considers evidence from a range of material taken from public sources and uses for illustration, previously unpublished data that has been collected from three semi structured interviews that were conducted in June and July 2009 with Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) based respectively, in a financial institution, a firm of accountants and from within the gaming industry. These were selected as representative of the range of professions that fall within the AML regulatory framework

Catalysing Impact Deal Flow in East Africa: Recommendations for Development of the Services Market

East Africa has become a focal point for impact investors across the globe, with investments steadily increasing since 2010. Yet despite this growth in recent years, the number of investment opportunities available remains limited. Catalysing Impact Deal Flow in East Africa explores the causes of this constraint and provides recommendations for donors seeking to increase impact investing volumes (deal flow).Top TakeawaysTwo key challenges are constraining the growth of impact investing in East Africa: 1) The pairing of investors and enterprises ("matching challenge"); and 2) enterprises' lack of readiness to take on investment ("preparation challenge").Local service providers (consulting and advisory firms) that help enterprises raise capital and build capacity are already addressing both the matching and the preparation challenges. However, these service providers themselves face constraints in scaling their services due to delayed and conditional payment of fees from enterprises resulting from a deferred success fee model.An appropriate market-shaping intervention could help service providers to scale up sustainably, and help to develop a more vibrant impact investing market overall

Inter-temporal and Inter-Industry Effects of Population Ageing: A General Equilibrium Assessment for Canada

The objective of this paper is to examine the inter-industry and labour market occupational effects of population ageing in Canada, using a computable general equilibrium overlapping-generations model. The model is calibrated along a balanced-growth path, taking into account labour-augmenting (Harrod-neutral) technical progress. It also accounts for heterogeneity at the household level, using 25 occupation-specific earnings profiles. In addition to the impact of slower labour force growth, the model captures the shift in sectoral composition of final demand. The latter is due to different consumption preferences of older individuals. Moreover, a wage curve is introduced to explore the impact of population ageing on the unemployment rate. The simulation results indicate that the growth in real GDP per capita could decline by nearly one percentage point between 2006 and 2050. Besides, the production of services, in percent of total GDP, is projected to increase in the long-run, although the analysis shows more modest changes in production shares than in previous studies. The results also suggest that the equilibrium unemployment rate is likely to decline by more than 2 percentage points in the long run. The impact also varies quite significantly at the occupational level.Population ageing, growth, general equilibrium model, overlapping generations, Canada

Modelling the Impact of Pupil Mobility on School Differences in Educational Achievement

The recently introduced National Pupil Database in England allows the tracking of every child through the compulsory phases of the state education system. The data from Key Stage 2 for three Local Education Authorities are studied, following cohorts of pupils through their schooling. The mobility of pupils among schools is studied in detail using multiple membership multilevel models that include prior achievement and other predictors and the results are compared with traditional ‘value added’ approaches that ignore pupil mobility. The analysis also includes a cross classification of junior and infant schools attended. The results suggest that some existing conclusions about schooling effects may need to be revised.Multilevel model, multiple membership model, mobility, value added, National Pupil database, educational attainment, cross classified model, random effects, school effectiveness

Results of a UK industrial tribological survey

During the summer of 2012, the National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) undertook a UK-wide industrial tribological survey in order to assess the explicit need for tribological testing within the UK. The survey was designed and implemented by a summer intern student, Mr Simon King, under the supervision of Drs John Walker and Terry Harvey and supported by the director of nCATS, Professor Robert Wood. The survey built upon on two previous tribological surveys conducted through the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during the 1990’s. The aim was to capture a snapshot of the current use of tribological testing within UK industry and its perceived reliability in terms of the test data generated. The survey also invited participants to speculate about how UK tribology could improve its approach to testing. The survey was distributed through the nCATS industrial contact list, which comprises of over 400 contacts from a broad spectrum of commercial industries. The Institute of Physics (IOP) tribology group also assisted by distributing the survey to its membership list. A total of 60 responses were received for the survey, out of which 39 had fully completed the questionnaire. Participants came from a broad spread of industrial backgrounds, with the energy sector having the highest representation. Only 40% of respondents were dedicated tribologists/surface engineers, again reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It was found that the companies that had the highest annual turnover also appeared to expend the most on tribology. The majority of respondents indicated that as a percentage of turnover tribology accounted for less than 1%, however the lack of hard figures only for tribology make this a conservative estimate. The greatest concern in relation to tribology of those who responded was the cost; however the influence of legislation and product reliability were also driving factors. Abrasive wear was still considered the number one tribological wear mechanism, with sliding contacts ranking as the most common type of wear interface. Metallic and hard coated surfaces were the most commonly encountered type of material suffering from tribological wear phenomena. Laboratory scale testing was a significant part of introducing a new tribological component, however component specific testing was considered the most reliable form of testing a new component over standardised test geometries. Overall there appeared to be much potential for improving the reliability of tribological test data, with most respondents indicating that simply more testing was not the best perceived approach to improving tribological data but rather more reliable, representative tests with improved knowledge capture. Most companies possessed an internal database to assist them with tribological information; however, many also expressed a strong desire for the use of a commercial or national database, although the format this might take was less clear. Opinions appeared split as to whether there would be a collective willingness to contribute to a centralised database, presumably on the grounds on the sensitivity of data

Assessment of the energy and economic performance of second generation biofuel production processes using energy market scenarios

In this paper performance assessment of second generation biofuel production using energy market scenarios and system-level performance indicators is proposed. During biofuel production a number of products and services can be co-generated while import of energy services (e.g. electricity and heat) in addition to the fuel supply may also be needed. This needs to be reflected by a well-defined performance indicator enabling a comparison between different process alternatives. A marginal production perspective is proposed in this study for the definition of a general energy performance indicator, recalculating all services to primary energy on a system level. The Energy Price and Carbon Balance Scenarios (ENPAC) tool developed at Chalmers is used for the definition of the energy system background. Thereby, a scenariospecific comparison of the processes’ thermodynamic, economic and carbon footprint performance is possible. The usefulness of the approach is illustrated for production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from biomass. The shortcomings of common performance indicators are also discussed

Le vieillissement de la main-d’oeuvre et le défi de la croissance au Québec

Cet article se penche sur les conséquences économiques du vieillissement démographique au Québec à l’aide d’un modèle régional appliqué d’équilibre général à cycle de vie. Il est maintenant connu que le Québec devrait connaître un vieillissement plus rapide de sa population au cours des prochaines décennies par rapport au reste du Canada. De plus, les travailleurs et travailleuses âgés se retirent plus tôt au Québec tandis qu’une proportion plus importante d’individus d’âge adulte demeurent inactifs comparativement au reste du Canada. Si cette tendance demeure, le choc démographique qui en résulterait pourrait entraîner une baisse de la croissance moyenne annuelle d’environ 0,5 point de pourcentage entre 2006 et 2050, soit une baisse de croissance nettement plus forte que celle prévue dans le reste du Canada. Toutefois, certaines options de politiques s’offrent au gouvernement du Québec pour amoindrir les coûts économiques attendus du vieillissement démographique. Les auteurs en examinent quelques unes.This paper examines the potential economic consequences of population aging in Quebec with the means of a dynamic life cycle computable regional general equilibrium model. It is well known that the population will age at a much faster pace in Quebec than in the rest of Canada over the next decades. Also, the Quebec workforce retires earlier and a greater proportion of adults remain inactive compared to the rest of Canada. If this trend continues, population ageing will lead to an average annual growth reduction of 0.5 percentage point over the period 2006 to 2050, which is much greater than anticipated in the rest of Canada. However, there are policy options available to reduce the economic cost of population ageing in Quebec. The paper explores some of them