As Q4 slowly creeps closer, many firms will be beginning their risk assessment cycles. To support your efforts, FINTRAIL are hosting an exclusive virtual workshop designed to equip you with the latest methodologies and insights on financial crime risk assessments.

We encourage you to share questions or topics you would like our panelists to address during this interactive session.

Why Attend?

The FCA and other regulators consistently highlight deficiencies in risk assessments, making it a critical area of focus over the next 18 months. Join FINTRAIL's experts to ensure your firm is prepared and compliant.

What We’ll Cover:

1. Risk Identification and Documentation: Learn how to effectively identify and document potential financial crime risks within your organisation.

2. Controls and Mapping: Understand how to map controls to identified risks and ensure they are effectively mitigating threats.

3. General Methodology: We will discuss methodologies that underpin robust risk assessments.

4. Connecting Your Risk Assessment to the Wider Framework: Integrate your risk assessment with your broader compliance and risk management strategies.

5. Engaging with FINTRAIL: Learn how FINTRAIL can support your firm with bespoke risk assessment services.

Interactive Q&A Session:

We value your input! Share your questions and topics of interest in the free text box provided during registration, and we'll address them during the workshop.

For any enquiries, please contact us.

We are delighted to invite all FFE members to the July FFE global typology virtual meet up, and we hope you can join us. 🙌🏻

Presentation by Cifas: Fraud Policy and Reporting Update

We are thrilled to welcome Cifas to our next FFE meet up. Helena Wood, Director of Public Policy & Strategic Engagement, will present on their public policy work including the Cifas Fraud Pledges 2024, and then go on to discuss what the new change of government might mean for fraud policy.

Brian Kinch, Strategic Accounts Director, will then give members an understanding of what Cifas can offer in fincrime compliance, and what is on the horizon for them in terms of supporting member success in fighting financial crime. They will also run through what they are seeking from a fraud reporting perspective from their Fraudscape Annual Report to give an idea of trends.

Presentation by Banking Circle: Money Laundering Typology involving Chinese “Shadow Banking”🕵🏼‍♀️

We are also excited to welcome Banking Circle to share a typology they recently identified. Lana Babenko-Smith, AML Intelligence & Investigations Lead and Tania Rodriguez, Senior AML Intelligence & Investigations Analyst, will talk through the typology involving Italian, Portuguese and Bulgarian entities, sending an unusually large volume of EUR payments to Virtual IBANs held by Chinese companies. Companies at both ends of the payment were found to be potential shell companies. Based on the findings, it is suspected that Chinese "shadow banking" may be involved in potentially facilitating the laundering of fraud proceeds. Their presentation will cover the typology, how it was identified and what actions we took to mitigate the risk.

Presentation by Monzo: Typology involving Invoice Factoring Fraud 🚩

In addition, we are pleased to include Monzo, to share a typology involving invoice factoring fraud targeting multiple banks via a small organised crime ring. Aisling Twomey, Senior Fincrime Manager, Business Banking, will discuss that as a smaller business bank with no invoice financing or factoring products, seeing a factoring fraud was difficult for their operations staff to spot. Aisling will share some information about financing and factoring products, and detail how the group used pyramid-scheme like approaches to steal and then launder the proceeds of crime, including a rundown of the red flags that should have raised alarms even if the underlying fraud wasn't fully understood.

To register, please follow the link in the invite email sent to you, visit the FFE Slack, or reach out to our team.

Please note that if you can’t attend the live session, you will be able to register to watch the replay (subject to speaker’s approval).

Screening is a major cornerstone of financial institutions’ efforts to fight financial crime, helping them prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion, and ensure regulatory compliance. Regulators see screening as a foundational control, imposing serious penalties for not doing enough. However, in practice even carefully designed processes can create unmanageable workloads that can obscure true risks. Meanwhile technology vendors promise game-changing solutions, which don’t always live up to reality. So how to get it right?

In this masterclass, hosted in partnership with Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, we will take a detailed look at current best practices in screening, covering sanctions (including control and ownership), political exposure, and adverse media. Using in-depth regulatory knowledge, real-world industry experience and practical use cases, our expert speakers will offer practical guidance on how to understand regulatory expectations, how to create a streamlined and efficient process, and how to maximise the power of technology and big data.

Join 600+ attendees and discover how consumer facing businesses in retail, gaming, mobility, entertainment, travel, healthcare and other key sectors, are approaching digital identity.

Passes include:

• Exceptional learning opportunities covering online safety, customer trust, digital accessibility, first-party fraud, the power of data, advances in mobile identity and much more.

• 150+ speaker line-up of leading innovators from Lloyds Banking Group, OakNorth Bank, NatWest, Taskrabbit, The Walt Disney Company, Vodafone, Bumble, Less Mills UK, plus more.

• The chance to connect with our partners to discover the latest tech on the market to drive your next project forwards.

• Access to the exhibition floor, lunch, and networking drinks reception after the content ends, plus co-located events – FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps, Customer Alpha and FTT Payments.

How to register:

We have a limited number of complimentary passes available for individuals with buying power or influence from regulated financial institutions, lenders, e-commerce firms and platform marketplaces, and other relying parties.

Tech and solution providers can save 20% on passes using the discount code - FIDCFINTRAIL20.

Explore the agenda, view the booking options and register by clicking the button below.

Asia-Pacific's Largest Gathering of Financial Crime Professionals returns

2023 was a challenging year witnessed uneven recovery itinerary among major economies. That has elevated the banking and financial markets to a much more sophisticated level, with the emerging trends in identifying, detecting, and remediating fraud and financial crime for financial institutions in Asia. The growing threats and vulnerabilities in the financial system and ever-evolving digital disruption such as GenAI have urged the industry to mitigate and respond to them effectively in 2024.

Returning in its fourth year, Fraud & Financial Crime Asia 2024 invites industry experts, policymakers and technologists to prepare ahead for the prevention, detection, and response to financial crime and compliance risks. We will delve into a comprehensive discussion of the rapidly changing landscape, emerging technologies and illegal activities, as well as the industry initiatives to combat illicit conduct.

This event will deep dive into 4 streams including retail and corporate banking, capital markets, private banking & wealth. 

It features in-focus groups, peer-to-peer roundtables, and more interactive sessions to provoke the event participants with hands-on experience, in-depth insight, feasible practice and strategies for enhancing compliance culture, governance, oversight, and for fostering collaboration and information sharing among different stakeholders and partners that you cannot miss. 

With The Wolfsberg Group releasing their Principles for Auditing a Financial Crime Risk Management Programme for Effectiveness under the Wolfsberg Factors, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to look closer at how to apply these principles.

Whether it’s an independent audit, model validation or BAU assurance activities, we'll explore how these principles can be applied to determine effectiveness as well as compliance.

Agenda:

• The three Wolfsberg factors and the associated principles for effectiveness

• How to adopt these principles into a methodology framework

• Thematically look at what that means for performing model validation activities for key control areas such as fraud, sanctions and transaction monitoring

• How FINTRAIL can help with these activities

Resourcing your AFC team continues to be challenging for any MLRO, compliance officer or head of financial crime. There are a whole range of complexities to consider from internal priorities, to regulatory changes to budgets.

FINTRAIL and FincSelect have teamed up to deliver this hour workshop to unpick some of the challenges and highlight some of the themes we are seeing in 2024.

We plan on covering the below questions:

• What does a modern FinCrime team and structure look like?

• What are some of the challenges we are seeing in the industry when it comes to capacity and resourcing?

• What are some of the hiring themes of 2024?

• What are some of the outsourcing opportunities to gain additional temporary headcount or expertise?

FFE & FINTRAIL Social with GBG [Members Only]

We are delighted to invite you to our exclusive FinTech FinCrime Exchange and FINTRAIL networking social in partnership with GBG.

The social will be an opportunity to forge new connections and strengthen existing relationships in our amazing FinCrime community, whilst enjoying a drink and some food! 🍷 🍡

📢 We are thrilled to welcome special guest speaker Geoff White, Cyber & Financial Crime Author & Investigative Journalist 🎤

Don't miss out on hearing an exciting talk from Geoff on his new book “Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World's Deadliest Crooks”. 🕵️‍♂️

Brush off dry January and join us for a great evening. 🎉

If you are an FFE member and would like to attend, please get in touch with our team.

FFE Virtual Meet up with Pay.UK [Members Only]

We are delighted to invite all FFE members to a virtual meet up with Pay.UK - we hope you can join us! 🙌🏻

Martin Sansone, Lead Standards Architect and Michael Hammond, Fraud Product Owner at Pay.UK, will provide an update for members on the Enhanced Fraud Data (EFD) initiative that Pay.UK are working on with the PSR to improve data sharing across the industry, and allows sending PSPs to ask receiving PSPs questions about receiving accounts in almost real time.

The scheme is based on the concept that sending firms can make better decisions and prevent more fraud if they have more information on where the funds are being sent. The EFD initiative is currently in development following a successful proof of concept stage, with all parties keen to roll it out fully as soon as possible. Firms will need to actively subscribe to the scheme, which they can do by contacting Pay.UK.

Please note that if you can’t attend the live session, you will be able to register to watch the replay (subject to speaker’s approval).

Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, and with figures suggesting that over 86% of fraud is unreported, the scale of the problem may be even greater than we know!

The political commitment and agenda to combat fraud have never been more clear or decisive, and 2024 will bring significant regulatory changes and scrutiny in this space. The message from regulators is clear: they expect more.

Robust and adaptive detective and preventive controls across the customer lifecycle are essential to a proactive defence against the ever-evolving landscape of fraud.

To stop fraudulent transactions, compromised accounts and money mules in their tracks, firms need to understand their fraud vulnerabilities, assess their control framework and build a clear plan of action.

Join this upcoming FINTRAIL webinar, hosted in partnership with Resistant AI, to learn about the ever-evolving fraud landscape, and the tools and strategies you should be considering to enhance detection and prevention in your financial crime team.

Sanctions Preparedness Senior Leaders Roundtable [Members Only]

As part of FINTRAIL and the FFE’s new programme of senior leaders events, we are hosting an invitation-only roundtable on sanctions preparedness. This roundtable discussion under Chatham House Rule, moderated by Emil Dall, Sanctions Lead at FINTRAIL will bring together a selected group of senior financial crime and sanctions leaders from the FinTech and financial industry.

In the FCA’s recent ‘Good and Bad Practice’ guidance on sanctions, it was highlighted that firms who had taken a proactive approach to identifying sanctions exposure to Russia were better placed to implement sanctions, and that the FCA considers sanctions planning key to responding successfully to future sanctions events. The FCA will be attending the first part of the roundtable to outline their expectations on this topic following their guidance issued in September (the FCA will leave the room for the industry-only roundtable that follows).

We believe it makes sense to do this as a FinTech industry group to:

1. Identify common lessons learned from Russia sanctions

2. Mapping out a common preparedness framework for future sanctions events

If you are not an FFE member and would like to attend events like this in the future, please get in touch with our team.

In conversation with FINTRAIL: FinCrime Priorities for 2024

Join us for a conversation about key financial crime compliance themes for 2024, drawing on recent conversations with regulators, enforcement trends and regulatory horizon scanning.

What you need to know and what you should be looking to prioritise in 2024:

• Regulatory changes and key areas of focus

• Themes from 2023 and how they’ll develop in the next 12 months

• FINTRAIL plans for 2024

Fraud readiness workshop: Preparing for 2024

FINTRAIL and FinTech FinCrime Exchange are hosting a virtual workshop on 22 November to help you ensure your business is equipped to combat fraud in 2024.

Our experts will be conducting a comprehensive review of the fraud landscape over the past year and analysing the key events projected for 2024.

Join James Nurse, Managing Director, FINTRAIL, Eoin Collins, Senior Financial Crime Consultant, FINTRAIL and Kathryn Westmore, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI to discuss:

• Recap of 2023 fraud trends

• Key fraud regulatory events and predictions for 2024

• Strategies for proactive preparation

We’ll share practical resources during and after the session to help you strengthen your fraud controls.

Going beyond a rules-based approach: How AI will supercharge your AML

As financial institutions grapple with the ever-evolving challenges of AML detection, risk mitigation, and compliance, AI emerges as a formidable ally.  Its ability to process vast volumes of data in real-time, identify patterns, and adapt to new threats enable it to overcome the problems of rules-based systems and supercharge AML programmes, especially in the area of transaction monitoring.No longer a futuristic buzzword, AI-powered fincrime tools are already in use, from start-ups through to leading global financial institutions. 

Join us for this webinar to hear from Daryl Norman, Group Chief Compliance and Risk Officer at Travelex, the world’s largest retail FX specialist operating across 26 countries, on how they have addressed the transition to AI, the practical challenges they have addressed, and the outcomes they have seen.   Peter Reynolds, CEO of ThetaRay, and Maya Braine, managing director of FINTRAIL, will contribute their insights and practical guidance for firms looking to start their AI adoption journey.

Live Workshop: Reassurance on Your Assurance

A robust assurance programme is a vital part of ensuring your AFC controls are working effectively. In this workshop, the FINTRAIL team will be discussing best practices for a 2nd line assurance framework and taking a closer look at nuances for particular control areas.

Agenda:

• What do the regulators say you need to do?

• Assurance framework best practices

• Thematic assurance - Fraud

• Thematic assurance - Transaction Monitoring (Featuring Resistant AI)

• Tracking, aligning and remediating

We will also be publishing an assurance framework guide, which you will receive as a follow up from the workshop.

Implications of the UK’s new fraud reimbursement model

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced upcoming new requirements for reimbursing victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud.  What are the proposed requirements, do they provide the “incentives to innovate” that the PSR hopes for, and what do they mean for your firm?

Join us to discuss these questions, from policy to practice, with these great speakers:

• Ciara Aitchison, Director, FINTRAIL

• Aaron Elliott-Gross, Group Head of Financial Crime and Fraud, Revolut

• Rob Evans, CEO, FINTRAIL

• Kathryn Westmore, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI

FINTRAIL and ComplyAdvantage: Transaction Monitoring Bootcamp

A bootcamp series for financial institutions on how to manage and run a best-in-class transaction monitoring process.  Covering process design, transaction analysis, OSINT research and more!

Day 1 - 8 June 2023 @ 2pm BST

Sessions will cover:

• Introduction to transaction monitoring

• Designing and managing a transaction monitoring process

• Talk from an industry guest speaker

Day 2 - 15 June 2023 @ 2PM BST

Sessions will cover:

• The use of technology

• Processing monitoring alerts

• Talk from an industry guest speaker

Speakers Include:

• Alia Mahmud, Global Regulatory Affairs, ComplyAdvantage

• Maya Braine, Managing Director, Head of Insights, FINTRAIL

• Iain Armstrong, Global Regulatory Affairs, ComplyAdvantage

• James Nurse, Managing Director, FINTRAIL

• Andrew Davies, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, ComplyAdvantage

• Simon McFeely, Global Head of Risk & Compliance, TransferMate

Risk Revealed is back! Following the success of the event series held in previous years, Refinitiv will be hosting a global event series - coming to a city near you in 2023.

This event will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“Bringing together external speakers with our experts from financial markets, risk, compliance and anti-money laundering, our event will feature interactive discussions and presentations on key risk and compliance themes.

Join to hear how data and technology solutions can help you identify and mitigate risk exposure across your business.”

Event info

Date: Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Time: 12:00 - 17:00 EEST
Location: Radisson Blu Lietuva, Konstitucijos pr. 20, 09308 Vilnius, Lithuania
Topic: AML, KYC, sanctions, data & technology and screening data intelligence

FFECON23 returns to London for it’s sixth year!

As the world evolves, so do FinTech’s anti-financial crime efforts. Along with practical challenges like remediation, FinTechs must cope with changing recession-driven demographics, catchy FinCrime buzzwords, and an evolving landscape of threats. How can FinTechs stay afloat and ahead in 2023?

FFECON23 combines power-packed expertise, strategy and curated community to help FinTechs tackle their most pressing challenges.

Click here to view the full agenda, and list of speakers and sponsors.

Webinar: In conversation with FINTRAIL: How to rethink your Risk Assessment

Join our CEO and Managing Director, Insights & Research, Robert Evans and Maya Braine, in a conversation with Melissa Sutherland of EverC for a fresh look at how to rethink financial crime risk assessments, to identify and mitigate the real risks your business faces.

Webinar: How data can transform your approach to financial crime detection and prevention, with Experian and FINTRAIL

Why are UK businesses a popular choice for money launderers? And to what degree have UK businesses been compromised? This presentation will provide a data-focused analysis exploring how unlocking the power of data can improve financial crime detection and learnings from the use of existing highly predictive data resources, including open government licence data, third party data and industry aggregate transaction data sharing.

Join us on Thursday 2 March for part two of the Financial Crime Monitoring and Investigation Masterclass series, with FINTRAIL & Dow Jones Risk and Compliance

A masterclass series for financial institutions on how to understand, assess and manage your clients’ financial crime risks through ongoing monitoring and deep dive investigations.

On day two of the masterclass we will cover:

• Session 3: OSINT Research

• Session 4: Using Tools and Technology

Join us on Thursday 23 February for part one of the Financial Crime Monitoring and Investigation Masterclass series, with FINTRAIL & Dow Jones Risk and Compliance

A masterclass series for financial institutions on how to understand, assess and manage your clients’ financial crime risks through ongoing monitoring and deep dive investigations.

On day one of the masterclass we will cover:

• Session 1: Monitoring and Investigations: The Regulatory Context

• Session 2: Investigating Suspicions

FinTech FinCrime Exchange  is a supporting organisation for Digital Assets Asia 2023, hosted by Regulation Asia. 

This event will bring together industry experts to provide a comprehensive view of the risks in crypto and digital assets markets, the evolving regulatory landscape in APAC and globally, and the moves being made by the traditional financial sector to enter the space.

Members from financial institutions, trading firms, exchanges, regulators, market infrastructures, industry bodies and academia can attend for free. However, due to limited seating, tickets will be by application. 

If you are interested in attending the event in-person on 23 February in Singapore, please register via www.digitalassetsasia.net. More information about the event is also available. 

To enquire about speaking or sponsorship opportunities, you can also contact events@regulationasia.com.

Join us at the third annual in-person event on 31st January 2023 in London

Learn about the latest digital strategies in the fight against financial crime

• Hear debates and presentations from FS leaders and innovators leading the fight against financial crime

• Stay on top of the leading-edge innovations in AML and FinCrime by visiting the dedicated Demo Stage to find out where the industry is heading in 2023

• Find out how to create secure and seamless customer experience using the latest onboarding and behavioural technologies

• Explore the strategies banks, asset managers and insurers are using to reduce costs and bolster defences

• Identify new trends and commercial opportunities for your organisation

How is the current economic recession impacting fraud?

We’ve surveyed 250+ FinTechs to gain critical insights and inform this expert-led panel on identity fraud in an economic downturn.

In a 45-minute discussion, financial crime experts unpack the results, discussing emerging identity fraud trends, innovative strategies to mitigate risk, and future predictions for turbulent times. It’s the perfect session for FinTechs and financial institutions looking to weather the economic storm with a fraud-smart strategy.

Join FINTRAIL and OCR Labs on December 6th at 2 PM GMT.

This online course is organised by RHT Academy in partnership with VRSE Asia & FINTRAIL.

Date: Wednesday, 23rd November 2022
Time: 9am - 5pm (GMT+8)

Course overview

Provide an overview of the international, regional and domestic bodies that combat money laundering and terrorism financing in the financial services sector.

Course outline

Module 1: What is ML and TF? What is Financial Crime?

Module 2: Regulatory Expectations and Developments

Module 3: Vulnerabilities and Risks of the Financial Sector

Module 4: AML/CFT and the Risk-Based Approach (RBA)

Module 5: Overview of the AML/CTF Control Framework for Financial Services