Glossary

Wage and hour compliance means paying workers what the law requires and limiting and recording their working time, including minimum pay, overtime, breaks, rest periods and correct treatment of staff categories.

Wall-crossing is the controlled step of bringing a person from the public side of an information barrier to the private side, so they can receive inside information under agreed restrictions.

Wash trading is trading with yourself or a partner, buying and selling the same asset so ownership never really changes, to fake volume or move the price.

A watchlist is a list of people, companies or other parties that are barred, restricted or considered high risk, which organisations check against customers, suppliers and transactions.

A whistleblower mechanism is the set of channels and procedures an organisation sets up so that staff and others can report suspected wrongdoing confidentially, have it assessed and investigated, and receive protection.

A whistleblower policy is a written document that tells people how to report suspected wrongdoing, how reports are handled and investigated, and what protection reporters can expect.

Whistleblower protection is the set of legal and organisational safeguards that shield people who report wrongdoing from retaliation, such as dismissal, demotion or harassment, and keep their identity confidential where possible.

A whistleblower reward is a payment, usually a share of money recovered, made by a government to a person whose information about wrongdoing leads to a successful enforcement action.

Whistleblowing is the act of reporting suspected wrongdoing, such as fraud, corruption, safety breaches or abuse, by someone who knows of it through their work, to people able to act on it.

White-collar crime covers dishonest, non-violent offences carried out for gain by people who use a business, professional or official position, usually through deception or breach of trust.

Wilful blindness is deliberately avoiding finding out the truth about something you suspect, so that you can claim not to have known. Many courts treat it as equal to actual knowledge.

Window dressing means making accounts or a portfolio look stronger at a reporting date through short-term, cosmetic moves that are reversed soon after, without changing the underlying position.

Wire stripping is the practice of removing or changing names, addresses or other details in a payment message so that a sanctioned party or country cannot be seen by the banks handling it.

A wire transfer is an electronic payment sent through a bank or payment institution, on behalf of a sender, so that money becomes available to a beneficiary at another institution, in the same country or abroad.

Withholding tax is tax that a payer deducts from certain payments, such as salary, interest, dividends or fees, and sends directly to the tax authority on behalf of the person receiving the money.

A witness interview is a planned conversation in an investigation with someone who may know relevant facts, held to gather an accurate account and record it reliably.

The Wolfsberg Group is an association of major global banks that writes voluntary guidance and standards on managing financial crime risk, such as money laundering, sanctions and corruption.

Workplace harassment prevention is the set of policies, training, complaint channels and investigation procedures an employer puts in place to stop unwanted conduct, including sexual harassment, and to deal with it fairly when it occurs.

Wrong-way risk arises when the amount a firm stands to lose on a counterparty grows at the same time as that counterparty becomes more likely to default. The two move together, which makes the loss larger than models usually assume.