Financial Crime, it goes without saying, is a critical issue for all financial services institutions. The cost to these businesses projected for 2022 is reported to surge passed the $1.5 trillion mark globally.  

Financial Services organisations are investing heavily in automated tools to combat an array of  threats as they struggle to keep up with an ever changing landscape. The Financial Crime Expo UK runs the 14th April at the East Wintergardens, Canary Wharf. The event will bring together industry leaders and technology pioneers  from across the field providing a platform to connect, share knowledge and learn about the latest technologies in financial crime prevention. Topics will cover: AML, KYC, Due Diligince, AI, Security, Identity Management, Risk Intelligence plus many more. 

Futurespectives: FinTech, Crypto and Financial Crime Compliance

 FinTechs and cryptocurrencies have received credit for reinventing global financial services. These advancements have raised many questions for compliance professionals and how we operate in this new fast-paced environment.

 This is your chance to take part in a one-day action-packed agenda as we delve into the hottest regulatory issues impacting this community.

 Program highlights:

• More and more crypto is all around us and is changing the way economies work. What does this mean for the regulatory landscape?

• Blockchain is in the DNA of crypto transactions - come and find out what you need to be across in two dedicated sessions.

• There have been many FinTech scandals and these have resulted in enforcement actions. We'll look into some of these including the Robinhood case.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shifted the international spotlight onto the enormous wealth of Russian oligarchs and other enablers of Vladimir Putin’s regime — a group of people OCCRP has been investigating for years.

So, OCCRP, the Guardian, and 25 other media outlets started to hunt down the yachts, mansions, planes, bank accounts, and other lucrative assets of Vladimir Putin enablers. Their findings can be found in Russian Asset Tracker, the most comprehensive database of its kind.

The 2022 Fraud in Financial Services – London will seek to address the fraud prevention and detection challenges faced by banking and financial institutions, highlighting best practice methods and business standards that organisations must take to minimise risk whilst accelerating digital agendas and business growth.

The event taking place on the 31st of March 2022 unpacks relevant industry related topics and the programme will delve into the shifting fraud risk landscape, data driven decision making, next generation fraud technologies, cybercrime, scam techniques, market trends & key drivers, and intelligence sharing & collaboration.

This 1-day event will take place-in-person at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel London, Tower of London. The programme will gather more than 20 industry-leading subject matter experts that will share knowledge and insights on how to adapt to the ever-changing global fraud risk landscape.

The event invites senior representatives from banks, insurance companies, FinTech’s, government, regulators, and the wider financial services industry.

The annual meeting place for the payments industry, PAY360 will bring together 1000 of the most senior representatives from banks, merchants, government, investors, fintechs, FIs, card providers, consultants and solutions providers.

Whether you are an established bank, emerging fintech or sit anywhere in between, PAY360 is the only conference where you will leave the sessions knowing exactly what your business and product development plan for tomorrow should look like, with clear visibility on the challenges you’ll face along the way and a plan for overcoming them, as well as with the contacts you need in order to form strong collaborations across the whole value chain in order to get there.

The event will present the EBA’s findings on the impact of de-risking on access to financial services in the EU. It will also explore the steps competent authorities can take to tackle this issue and will provide an opportunity for discussion and for the exchange of good practices.

You can register to the event via this registration link no later than 7 March at 16:00 CET.

For Project CRAAFT (Collaboration, Research and Analysis Against the Financing of Terrorism), CFCS Associate Fellow Noémi També will discuss the terrorism financing threats facing Europe from foreign state funding

Growing concern with the subversive intentions of foreign governments – through the financing of domestic groups including charities, religious institutions and media outlets – has once again reappeared as a core security concern for Europe. By exerting well-targeted influence, state agitators may be enabled to amplify hateful, anti-pluralistic ideas among local populations, creating fertile conditions for radicalisation, violent extremism, and finally terrorism.

In this CTF Online Symposium, Noémi També will assess whether and how foreign state funding of anti-democratic ideology should be prevented, monitored or limited.She will consider if malign influence constitutes a terrorism financing threat, and if it could be identified and repelled via the existing elements of the counter-terrorism financing regime.

Speaker

Noémi També is an Associate Fellow of the CFCS and an independent financial crime consultant and researcher with over 15 years professional experience across the academic, public and private sector. She is an Associate Professor at the Luxembourg School of Business. Her academic research interests are money laundering and terrorism financing risk, crypto risk, risk appetite and developing a methodology to measure the effectiveness of the global AML framework.

This one day event will explore the APAC regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies, CBDCs, global stablecoins and other digital assets, as well as best practices for financial institutions to mitigate risk and safeguard investors as the industry matures.

Register free here (FIs, Regulators, Exchanges): https://lnkd.in/gSfAduGB

Get your Early Bird Tickets here (Vendors, Service Providers): https://lnkd.in/gtS-6DUB

In an environment of constrained budgets and burgeoning regulatory activity, managing resources while ensuring compliance remains a top priority for compliance leaders.
This webinar will consider a range of approaches to meeting this challenge, enabling compliance teams to increase both efficiency and effectiveness, whether through investing in technology or investing in training and development.

We are hosting a RegTech Forum webinar on the FCA’s approach to innovation and the growing importance of Supervisory Technologies (SupTech) on Thursday, 10 February, 2022 from 14.00 to 15.30 (GMT).

Our RegTech Forum events create a platform for the RegTech industry, financial institutions, FinTechs, academics and regulators to discuss developments and opportunities within the innovation ecosystem of financial services. 

Through these Forums we provide our stakeholders with an insight into our key areas of interest and future work programme, as well as the opportunity to share experience and knowledge.

This event will focus on how innovative technologies are currently being used by regulators and seek to understand the challenges and opportunities for further adoption in the future. Our Chief Data, Information & Intelligence Officer, Jessica Rusu will speak on our approach to innovation in her opening remarks

According to a recent survey, cyber risk is the top risk faced by cybersecurity leaders. With the growing frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks, security teams and risk professionals are inundated with ensuring the effectiveness of their cyber defence mechanism. Furthermore, with a growing regulatory focus on IT & cybersecurity regulations, ensuring regulatory compliance is a major concern and a key area where future investments are likely to be directed.

Organisations need to adopt a mature cyber risk management program, which will provide a holistic view of their cyber risk and compliance posture.

In this webinar, we will explore:

• how risk professionals and compliance officers are tackling cyber risk?

• how risk quantification helps with strategic decisions?

• the role of the Chief Compliance Officer in cyber security risk management.

how can an automated GRC solution help security professionals?

Join Transparency International UK on Wednesday 09 February at 15:30 GMT to hear direct from co-founder and former vice-chairman of Transparency International Frank Vogl about his new book: The Enablers - How the West Supports Kleptocrats and Corruption - Endangering our Democracy.

The book examines how kleptocracy perpetuates corruption, undermines democracy, and creates a global system of "enablers," all set against the backdrop of the release of the Pandora Papers and other global scandals. Rachel Davies Teka, Head of Advocacy at Transparency International UK, will be asking Frank how exactly we navigate the "enablers" that undermine the fight against corruption. 

Fighting economic crime should not be a political matter, nor something that divides political opinion. Economic crime should be a cross-party, unifying foe.

In July 2019, the UK government set out a comprehensive plan for tackling economic crime. The first of its kind, the Economic Crime Plan (ECP) 2019–2022 set out an ambitious agenda to strengthen the country's whole-system response to the threat. As activities under the Plan conclude, much remains to be done, and further discussion is needed to prepare the UK to face the challenges ahead.

As part of its project tracking the implementation of the ECP, RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) is holding a cross-party discussion to showcase economic crime as a consensus issue on which UK politicians of whatever stripe should align to drive change.

This event will be chaired by Maria Nizzero, Research Fellow at the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies.

To consider this challenge, we are delighted to welcome:

Speakers

• SUSAN KRAMER

  Baroness Kramer PC served as MP for Richmond Park from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Liberal Democrats, she has been their Treasury Spokesperson since 2015 and is also currently a member of the Economic Affairs Committee and a Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax.

• KEVIN HOLLINRAKE

  has been the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton since May 2015. He is currently a member of the Treasury Select Committee, Vice-Chair of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax and the Co-Chair of the APPG on Fair Business Banking.

• ALISON THEWLISS

  Alison Thewliss is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who has been MP for Glasgow Central since 2015. She is currently the Shadow SNP Spokesperson for Treasury, as well as a member of the Treasury Committee and a Vice-Chair of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax.

• LABOUR MP TBD

  LABOUR MP TBD

This broad and comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of the payments ecosystem, gives an in-depth snapshot of the entire industry for a better understanding of how it all fits together.

This intensive but interactive one-day training course combines presenter-led sessions, thought-provoking videos and discussions. Drawing on real life examples, it weaves together the underpinning principles, legislation, key stakeholders with practical applications of all three.

Course content:

• Payment cards overview

• Authorisation, clearing and settlement

• Key economics (e.g. MSC, interchange)

• ACH payments overview

• Alternative payments, FinTech, regtech, etc.

• New technologies, Open Banking, etc.

• Regulations and licences overview (incl. SEPA)

• Payments channels and payments value chain overview (including role of master merchant)

• Value distribution

• EU regulations (PSD2, AML, GDPR, etc.), card scheme rules & PCI DSS and future outlook

Kleptocracy and corruption undermine democracy. Bolstering the capacity of journalists and civil society to respond must be a priority.

Information on our Spanish language event, focussing on Latin America, is available here.

President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy highlighted the fundamental role of civil society and investigative journalists in tackling corrupt ecosystems and pressing for reform. This is particularly relevant in countries where the state or members of the political elite are complicit in corrupt activities. Empowering non-governmental actors is a critical element of the global effort to reverse the impunity felt by those that profit from corruption and kleptocracy. While more action is certainly needed by policymakers in London and Washington, restricting kleptocracy in the ‘first mile’, at its source, must also be prioritised.

Speakers

RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies is delighted to welcome panellists who will share their insights and experience from East Africa, and consider the measures needed to strengthen local responses and to curb global corruption and kleptocracy:

• John Githongo, Investigative journalist

• Sheila Masinde, Director at Transparency International Kenya

• John-Allan Namu, Investigative journalist, Africa Uncensored

The panel discussion will be chaired by Maria Sofia Reiser of RUSI’s CFCS.

Earlier this year, over 400 global sanctions experts joined us for the inaugural Sanctions Space Summit. We were joined by a stellar line-up from organizations such as OFAC, the White House, the European Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the European Leadership Network and some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Our second summit will build on the success of the 2021 event by convening experts to examine the full spectrum of sanctions compliance and the most pressing issues facing our industry.

Core areas include global visions of compliance, the geopolitical landscape, country-specific sanctions regimes, human rights and corruption, cyber threats, securities, proliferation finance, maintaining an effective compliance program, and much more.