Captivated Audience: A Financial Crime Podcast

Jane Jee, Chair Kompli-Global Limited and Chair Project Financial Crime, Emerging Payments Association (UK) talks to Marie Lundberg and Sam Sheen about her involvement in the pre-consultation in her role with the Emerging Payments Association to urge the UK Government to engage more with RegTechs as part of their planned review of the Money Laundering Regulations and the plans in the UK for its well known corporate registry - Compa...

Marie Lundberg and Sam Sheen are joined again by Al Catto, Managing Director of Beyond, to discuss all things change related when it comes to AML/CFT compliance programs. We start Part 2 by discussing the way in which FinTech's approach change and its impact on key AML projects; the importance of test planning to make sure the change you want has the intended impact,  and the politics involved in major change initiatives. We a...

Ch-ch ch-ch changes! Al Catto joins Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg to talk about his company, Beyond and their speciality - change transformation involving AML/CFT programmes.  Turning around failed RegTech or even onboarding processes is no easy task. Al shares his insights on the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to successfully implementing a transformation project.  Want faster KYC? Streamlined CDD onboarding? Will KYC Reg...

David Christie, Chairman of Bleckwen, joins Marie and Sam to chat about the amazing world of behaviour detection and how Bleckwen has harnessed machine learning to better detect fraudulent and suspicious behaviour. With a name linked to a "truth serum", Bleckwen has been involved in some "deep truth" investigations dealing with better detection of complex fraud such as PPP fraud, where it is a challenge for bank...

Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg are joined by Aamir Hanif, a globe-trotting financial crime compliance expert, to talk about all things related to free ports and free trade zones.  Having been identified as having an elevated risk for financial crime, Aamir explains how Free Trade Zone companies are operated, who controls them, accessing KYC information about their UBOs, while Marie raises a good point: Maybe when it comes to free por...

Elizabeth Slim joins Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg for part 2 to chat about the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2020 (AMLA) and how this significant reform will impact areas such as new protections for corporate whistleblowers that now includes MLROs, auditors or even an attorney, along with the upping of the payments made to them. They also consider whether an overseas staff member is protected under the AMLA if they blow the whistle on ...

Elizabeth Slim joins Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg to chat about the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2020 (AMLA) and how this significant reform will impact areas such as Beneficial Ownership rules, FinCen's planned review of the art market from an AML perspective and whether overseas businesses with subsidiaries in the US need to comply with these requirements. They also consider the not-so-simple UBO rules, when companies must regi...

Eric Sohn joins Marie and Sam to talk about some recent decisions and fines imposed by the US sanctions regulator, OFAC, and their possible implications for firms and how they conduct sanction KYC and screening. This is a must listen to episode as Eric and Marie share their practical advice the different ways professionals can approach their list management practices, how they conduct sanctions KYC and what it means to take a risk-...

Marie Lundberg and Sam Sheen chat with Encompass Co-Founder and CEO Wayne Johnson currently in Australia, to chat about the goal of achieving a single digital risk profile of a customer, as part of a tech-enable financial crime prevention programme.  Wayne explains the concept of "Intelligence Process Automation" or IPA, and how it's intended to make the onboarding process of customers more efficient and effective, w...

Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg welcome George Voloshin back to the podcast, where they look at the European regulations that prevent businesses from refusing business on the grounds of needing to comply with the USA sanctions regulations related to Iran.  George and the hosts look at court decisions where companies have been challenged by customers who've refused services or ended business relationships - and whether the reasons...

In Part 3 of this series, Sam and Marie discuss the concerns that EU AML regulators continue to have around crowdfunding platforms - both as customers of financial institutions and as businesses in their own right.  They also consider the EBA's assessment of fraud and related financial crime risks that have arisen in 2020 during the COVID pandemic - what should firms have been doing to mitigate those risks? What should regulat...

In the final part of the series, Marie and Sam discuss how remote onboarding has proven to be an essential lifeline for many businesses during the pandemic.  However, the European Banking Authority's Opinion reflects that AML regulators in the EU are still concerned that businesses may not be onboarding customers in a way that effectively mitigates those classic "non face to face" financial crime risks. Hear what the...

Continuing with a detailed review of the European Banking Authority's Opinion on the Financial Crime Risks facing financial services businesses in the EU, Sam and Marie discuss how FinTechs are still considered to pose an elevated financial crime risks in the EU, concerns around the use of remote onboarding and other RegTech and why the terrorist financing risks are not seen to have changed since 2019 and what's needed to...

After a short hiatus, Sam and Marie return and kick off 2021 with a detailed review of the European Banking Authority's Opinion on the Financial Crime Risks facing financial services businesses in the EU. Looking at the updated to the EBA's findings first published in 2019, Sam and Marie explain the methodology applied in assessing various financial crime risks and the measures the EBA proposes will help to mitigate them....

Marie and Sam chat with Araliya Samme about her role at RegTech firm, Featurespace, the detection of unusual behaviour using machine learning as part of financial crime investigations to better detect and report suspicious activity,  How behavioural analytics work in practice and why the 'one size fits all' approach to compliance monitoring is quickly becoming obsolete.  They also explore the crime trends seen during the ...

Gavin Keeley, CEO of  Search 365 in Queensland, Australia joins  Marie and Sam to chat about his company's search engine technology and his partnership with Basis Technology, Gavin's global work in the regulated insurance sector and how fraud risks have arisen for that sector during the COVID crisis and a solution formulated for one insurer when 980 000 Australians were made redundant, triggering a mass of insurance and a...

Elizabeth Slim joins Marie Lundberg and Sam Sheen to chat about the recent FinCen Guidance on politically exposed persons ("PEPs")  in the USA and how it differs from similar regulations in the UK, her work in founding her local ACAMS Chapter. Elizabeth chats about the PEPs identified in the FinCen leaks, the changes to PEP lists anticipated following the US election and what financial institutions need to do now to stay ...

Dr Annalise Vineer joins Sam Sheen and Marie Lundberg for a chat about the thorny issue of financial crime investigations - are banks hitting the mark? What causes their investigations to "fail"? Why are relationship managers so critical to an effective investigation? Annalise also explains why knowing how and what to ask bank personnel AND customers is not a skill to be taken for granted and what can be done to make thos...