Dallas, Texas (March 9, 2026) — FBFK Law has entered into a formal strategic collaboration with Belgium-based Ethikos to create a coordinated U.S.–European Union anti-money laundering compliance and enforcement defense platform, the firms announced.
The move comes as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic intensify scrutiny of financial institutions and fintech companies and as the European Union prepares to implement sweeping structural reforms to its AML regime.
Industry reports show global AML fines rose sharply in early 2025 compared to the prior year, while U.S. regulators increased enforcement and examination activity tied to suspicious activity monitoring and program governance. In Europe, the forthcoming AML Regulation will harmonize standards across Member States beginning July 10, 2027, and the newly established Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Frankfurt will centralize supervisory authority over major institutions.
“These developments represent more than incremental enforcement,” said Kyle Ferguson, CEO of FBFK Law. “They reflect structural alignment across jurisdictions. Institutions operating globally must align their compliance frameworks accordingly.”
The collaboration does not merge the firms but establishes coordinated strategy across jurisdictions. FBFK’s regulatory and investigations team focuses on enforcement response, internal investigations, and compliance remediation in the banking, fintech, payments, and digital asset sectors. Ethikos concentrates on AML inspections, sanctions compliance, and regulatory advisory across EU markets.
Miguel Mairlot, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ethikos, said cross-border institutions increasingly face overlapping oversight rather than isolated national supervision.
“Regulatory expectations are converging,” Mairlot said. “Institutions must anticipate enforcement risk through coordinated governance and risk-based AML architecture.”
Ethikos conducts hundreds of AML reviews and inspections annually and, in certain years, performs more than a thousand individual AML file assessments depending on institutional scope. In 2025, the firm has already handled dozens of AML-related inspections and cross-border reviews.
Under the collaboration, the firms will advise clients on AML program design, regulatory examination readiness, enforcement defense, fintech licensing, sanctions compliance, cross-border transaction risk integration, and board-level governance oversight.
The alliance will be formally introduced at the upcoming FIBA AML Conference on March 23, 2026 hosted by the Florida International Bankers Association, where the firms will present on U.S.–EU enforcement trends and strategies for aligning legal and operational compliance teams across jurisdictions.
Media Contact:
Ekaterina Ferguson
Chief Marketing Officer, FBFK Law
[email protected]
About FBFK Law
With more than 20 years of legal expertise and success across Texas and the United States, Dallas-based FBFK Law is an entrepreneurial-minded, full-service business law firm with offices in Plano, Houston, and Austin, Texas, as well as Orange County, California. Driven by a commitment to creating lasting client relationships grounded in high-quality representation and client service, FBFK Law represents clients nationwide across 40 practice areas related to business structures and transactions, intellectual property protection, and dispute resolution.
www.fbfk.law/
