For financial crime compliance professionals, cryptoassets are one of the hottest topics around. With regulators and global watchdogs like the Financial Action Task Force zeroing in on cryptoassets, any compliance team that isn’t educated on cryptoassets has a major blind spot.
Cryptoassets are no longer a fringe financial technology: cryptoassets have a total market value of more than $250 million; bitcoin is among the top ten currencies globally in terms of the overall value of banknotes and coins in circulation; and over $500 billion flows between the banking sector and cryptoasset businesses annually. Cryptoassets are now a feature of the financial landscape. This exciting technology presents both compliance challenges and business opportunities for teams not only at cryptoasset businesses, but also for banks and FinTechs who can no longer ignore this burgeoning asset class.
That’s why we’re partnering with the team at Elliptic to launch our first ever cryptoasset compliance virtual bootcamp. Launching on June 30, this online bootcamp is one we’ve designed to assist banks, FinTechs, and cryptoasset firms alike in identifying strategies for managing financial crime risks in this new phase of cryptoassets. We’ve launched this initiative to help compliance teams in their journey, and to educate and ensure the wider regulated sector understands the cryptoasset industry, how it may affect their business, and how best to practically address the risks while harnessing new opportunities. The bootcamp focuses on how your business can apply an effective risk based approach towards cryptoassets. This ensures the highest risks to your business are the focus of your compliance efforts, with less impactful risks sitting lower down the priority list.
Led by FINTRAIL’s Danielle Jukes and Elliptic’s David Carlisle, and featuring guest speakers from around the financial crime compliance space, this complementary virtual bootcamp will include three engaging sessions across June and July. Each session will focus on the key pillars that we see as vital to a strong cryptoasset financial crime risk management framework. Content for the sessions will include:
Session 1: Cryptoasset risks . . . What’s your appetite?
Effective risk management starts by defining your risk appetite. If you are a cryptoasset business, have you articulated to your staff which risks you’re willing to accept? For example, are there certain countries that present especially high cryptoasset risks and with which you won’t do business? And if you are a FinTech or bank, have you clearly defined what degree of interaction your business will or won’t have with cryptoassets, and do your staff understand how to ensure adherence to that risk appetite? Until you’ve defined your risk appetite, you can’t expect your compliance team to develop an effective response. In this session, we’ll provide you with a conceptual framework for defining your cryptoasset risk appetite and using that foundation for effective risk management.
Key takeaways: an understanding of how you can develop a risk appetite statement on crypto, and how it can affect your business, relevant examples of statements related to cryptoassets.
Session 2: Assessing and Getting to Grips with the FinCrime Risks:
Cryptoassets present specific financial crime risks and feature heavily in some typologies more than others. Understanding these risks and executing a crypto-specific risk assessment is critical to managing risk exposure, whether your platform offers cryptoasset services directly or not. If you are a cryptoasset business, do you understand which fincrime typologies present the highest risks to your platform? Do you offer privacy coins or other services that may present an elevated risk to your profile? If you are a FinTech or bank, while you may not offer cryptoasset services, do you understand crypto-specific typologies that may expose your business to indirect cryptoasset risks that are sometimes very difficult to detect? This session will equip you with the know-how you require to conduct an effective cryptoasset risk assessment for your business.
Key takeaways: an understanding of different types financial crime risks, how they present themselves within cryptoassets, and how your business can assess these risks.
Session 3: Systems and Controls - Managing Your Cryptoasset Risks in Practice
Managing cryptoasset risks requires access to systems and controls that can detect and protect against bespoke risks. Your compliance team should be working to solve the following questions:.
For cryptoasset businesses, do you have access to these bespoke cryptoasset monitoring tools tools, and are they configured appropriately to your business needs?
For banks and fintechs, are you able to detect and assess risks related to counterparties who may be dealing in cryptoassets? Solutions exist that can enable you to do so, but they require expertise your business may not possess.
Filing SARs and undertaking reporting obligations related to cryptoassets can present specific challenges. Are you equipped to navigate these challenges?
Key takeaways: an understanding of what systems and controls are out there, and how they can fit into your wider anti-financial crime framework.
This bootcamp will help your compliance team work through these and other questions, and in doing so, will empower you to execute on a vital component of your financial crime risk management framework. If these three pillars are executed effectively, then your compliance team can confidently tackle the risks associated with cryptoassets.
You don’t want to miss out on this opportunity to learn from FINTRAIL and Elliptic’s experts in cryptoasset compliance. You will also be awarded a certificate of attendance after attending all three sessions.