One of the most quoted sayings of Sun Tzu ("No plan survives the first contact with the enemy") isn't by Sun Tzu. But there is at least some evidence that an ear-biting, wife-beating boxer said "no plan survives the first punch in the face" (although even that is told in several different versions). So I feel entirely justified in coming up with my own variant on the original misquote.

No plan survives the first contact with the Year of the Rat (or 2020 - take your pick)

It sounds like a letter on an agony aunt page, doesn't it? But no, it's actually a series of sensible questions from someone who is bamboozled by the jargon in the financial sector. Here it is, with my replies.

When Des Hellicar-Bowman referred to a 19th Century book, "The Theory of the Leisure Classes" by Thorstein Veblen, I knew it would be good because Mr Hellicar-Bowman and I take a similar view of financial crime in that it the only way to understand it and therefore to effectively counter it is to make a broad study of everything to do with it, including those things that appear to be only peripherally relevant. The book is obliquely applicable to financial crime but it is directly relevant to how we view assets and source of funds and source of wealth. Here's what I found....

As the dust continues to swirl around the US presidential election much media mileage is being made of the USA's "first black woman vice president."

There's just one issue: Kamala Harris isn't "black."

Good morning. I seem to be having some difficulty working out how long a month is, as it seems that my last monthly newsletter was on 25th August. That's as close to two months ago as no matter.

In that two months, much has happened in the world and a lot of it has a direct, or indirect, impact on the world of financial crime risk and compliance.

We are, once more, seeing unprecedented times as country after country sets records for daily infections with CoVid-19. But there's a forgotten, perhaps unrecognised, group of people who are deserving of attention.

UPDATE: Due to increased restrictions due to coronavirus infection rates, this event has been postponed. A new date will be published when more information is available. Until then, please do contact the organisers to make sure you are kept up to date.

There is, at present, a state of excitement amongst the media, some financial crime consultants and some politicians in response to what they are being told is public opinion.

The so-called FinCEN Files were heavily telegraphed in a media blitz more akin to the launch of a Hollywood film that has cost a fortune but the result isn't as good as was hoped.

In the USA and the UK, mainstream media outlets have published a series of articles that, they say, arise because of what it has found in documents obtained from the USA's Financial Intelligence Unit, FinCEN.

Before almost every FATF meeting in the recent past there have been comments that Pakistan will be removed from the "Grey List". We've heard about legal and regulatory changes to make that happen.