The European Commission is to toughen the enforcement of anti-money laundering legislation, requiring greater cross-border coordination, reports the FT. The Commission is proposing a three day deadline for financial intelligence units responsible for policing suspicious transactions to respond to requests for bank account data from other EU countries. The plan to remove the bottlenecks in sharing of bank account data would also simplify law enforcement authorities' access to national registers of bank account holders. A report published via the London bureau of Moody's Investors Service has suggested that while blockchain technology has the potential to make cross-border transactions faster and less expensive - and therefore credit positive for banks - these efficiencies could also compress their fees, commissions and gains on foreign exchange transactions - a credit negative. Swiss banks would be most exposed to reductions in fees and commission, with 50 per cent of their revenue coming from that source, said Moody's. Banks in the Asia Pacific region "are relatively less prone to relying on fees and commissions in generating total revenue", Moody's added. China's banks have likely understated their bad debt, according one of the country's four national asset management companies, which says it expects China's nonperforming loans to grow this year as lenders come under more pressure to recognise and dispose of them. The report is a rare acknowledgment from a state-owned company that the official figure for tracking bad debt in the banking system might be underestimated, reports Caixin.com, noting this is a view that is widely held outside of China. The South African government has banned KPMG from auditing public institutions in the country following the auditor's role in a high profile bank collapse, reports the FT. KPMG gave VBS a clean audit last year, before it collapsed last month "with holes in its reported deposits and evidence of fraudulent transactions". KPMG is also under fire for ties to the controversial Gupta family, which has been accused of using influence, under former president Zuma, to divert state contracts to benefit its businesses. Lloyds Banking Group has begun its shift to digital with the announcement that 1,230 jobs will be cut and 49 branches closed down while 925 new digitally focused roles will be created, reports the FT. The restructuring is part of a £3 billion investment plan to adapt to the growing number of its customers wanting to do more banking digitally. The bank will also be ramping up its training programme to shift more of its current staff into "customer-facing and digitally focused" roles.