Anti Money Laundry and Financial Crime Conference LONDON 2017 – Day 1 reflections

First day of conference concluded and truly astonished over the dedication and level of skills of the attendances. It´s been truly astonishing to learn from the experts not only the speakers on stage but also from informal meetings in breakouts. For those not being able to attend this year I summarize my impressions and reelections, for those being present please feel free to add and comment as I do want to get all possible feed-back to learn more about this critical topic.

The protection of our financial systems is key as they are saving lives directly and indirectly.  The predominantly alternative to online transactions are carrying cash, with all the risks for the courier and fraud. Further the speed in money transfer is key in natural disasters to ensure the required means do reach the people suffering in time.  Financial crimes are often carried out by organization involved in other criminal activities such as trafficking, drugs and slavery. The lack of fresh water are still killing far too many on our planet.  Bearing that insight in mind set all other aspects of the fight against fraud aside.

The work to keep our systems clean can not be carried out in isolation. Hence the work done by OECD is setting global standards for financial regulators are key. It´s not perfect today however the alternative is not that countries goes in separate directions making the adherence for companies operating over the world even more complicated.

Countries with bad reputation from being perceived as safe haven for money laundries are now stepping up as demonstrated by Jersey and Malta.  They started the hard work to get their adherence to global rules and participating actively to avoid being used as tax havens and money laundry.

Given the country /local inspection authorities and private companies internal audits  are set under cost pressure  simplification is key.  However Regulation Technology (REGTECH) solutions are already there to help companies getting insight to clients (KYC) as well as support for regulation adherence.  A perfect play for today’s technology based on Big Data concepts and in the future AI solutions.

Bringing all good forces together in the protection of our financial systems will be key for the business and international programs.  The work will never be “completed” as the “bad guys” continuously will try to find new means to leverage the systems however confident the already established foundation of good forces will continue to develop new means to protect our critical financial systems. Let’s do it TOGETHER!

For those of you not already joined ACAMS please visit http://www.acams.org/