
Manesh Samtani is Editor at Regulation Asia, where he leads the editorial and research teams from Hong Kong. His work examines how regulatory change and technology are reshaping banking and financial markets, with a particular focus on digital assets, financial crime and sanctions. Manesh is a former securities industry practitioner and holds a bachelor's degree in finance and banking. [email protected]

Anti-Money Laundering
European Court of Justice Deems Malta’s Gold Passport Programme Illegal
02/05/2025
CJEU ruled that a commercial transaction cannot be used to acquire EU citizenship. The scheme has earned Malta EUR 1.4 billion since 2015.

Data Privacy
China Issues Guidance on Data Protection Compliance Audits
01/05/2025
The guidance incorporates the requirements of the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, Personal Information Protection Law and other related regulations and national standards.

Credit Risk
Japan FSA Offers Guidance on Enterprise Value-Backed Lending
01/05/2025
The FSA is encouraging FIs to move away from a purely formulaic approach to loan evaluation and provisioning and to exercise more judgment.

Climate Risk
Japan FSA Publishes Research on Climate-related Scenario Analysis
01/05/2025
The research is intended to guide Japanese banks and insurers in strengthening their resilience to climate-related risks and developing robust transition plans.

Fraud, Scams & Cybercrime
AFCA Calls Out Inconsistent Scams Response Across Financial Industry
30/04/2025
AFCA is urging FIs to bolster their scam response teams with adequate resources to effectively combat scams and boost consumer confidence.

Cloud & Infrastructure
NZ FMA Announces First Six Firms That Will Join Pilot Sandbox
30/04/2025
Six firms will test new products and services in a controlled environment, helping the FMA to gain greater insights into new technologies.

PEPs & Sanctions
OFAC Sanctions Chinese Companies for Chemical Shipments to Iran
30/04/2025
Five China-based companies were sanctioned over shipments of ballistic missile propellant ingredients for use by Iran’s IRGC.

Sustainable Finance
Confidence in Green Finance Dropping in Financial Centres
29/04/2025
Singapore is the only APAC centre ranked in the top 10 in the 15th edition of the Global Green Finance Index by Z/Yen.

Capital Adequacy
APRA Finalises Updates to Reporting Standard for Capital Adequacy
29/04/2025
APRA will collect data on unrealised losses for securities in the liquid asset portfolio that are not measured at fair value.

Fraud, Scams & Cybercrime
Japan Announces New Measures to Protect Society from Fraud
28/04/2025
Among the series of measures, law enforcement agencies will create dummy accounts and allow fraud groups to use them to trace the flow of money.
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