For Canadian resident Diana Arreluce, breaking into the financial crime compliance field could either be viewed as an accident – or an incredible stroke of luck.

Over the past decade, the native Peruvian has dedicated herself to mastering a variety of skills critical to better understanding the array of counter-crime threats a financial institution could face, including risk rating customers, analyzing monitoring systems for aberrant transactions, the expansion and constriction of global sanctions, changing compliance regulations and the potentially pernicious nature of politically-exposed persons (PEPs).

Arreluce graduated with a B.A. in economics and international studies from University at Buffalo (NY).

After graduation, she moved back to Peru, where she worked for her family’s company for about a year before starting work with ASR – a subcontractor of the WoldCompliance (WCo) division of LexisNexis Risk Solutions (LNRS) – in 2010.

Arreluce’s work with ASR was “my first introduction to compliance, a subject that despite my academic background I had never learned much about,” she told ACFCS. “You could say that Margaret (Maggie) Sims, then Director of Global Content for WCo became a mentor on my path to learning about the world of compliance.”

Through her work with ASR, she became familiar with a wide range of financial crimes, growing from a research role to a supervisory position, spending her last year with ASR in the role of Operations Manager, overseeing a team of over 40.

In May 2018, Arreluce relocated to Canada and chose to go back to school, taking part in Seneca’s Financial Services Compliance Administration program (FCA).

Those experiences have led to her current position as Senior anti-money laundering (AML) Analyst with Scotiabank, one of Canada’s largest banks.  

Apart from the explicit hard skills, Arreluce also acknowledges that vital to being successful in a field so dependent on gathered knowledge and informed decision-making is an inquisitive mind always looking for new paradigms to tackle current obstacles and historical dilemmas.

“Something I’ve learned through my career is that curiosity is a good thing, especially in this profession, and should be celebrated in young professionals,” she told ACFCS. “Asking questions, learning, and showing interest in new things will get you much further in your career than simply listening to others.”

Even so, such an asset must be paired with a malleability and fluidity to rise and overcome new challenges, a firm foundation for success.  

“All the positions I’ve held in this industry have had certain things in common,” she said.

“Those to me represent the skills and attributes needed for success. First, adaptability, after all this is an evolving and ever-changing environment. Second, the willingness to keep learning, and finally the ability to problem solve. I like to tell people ‘don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions,’ and this one in particular is a rule I like to live by.”

The ability to morph and grow to become whatever a bank needs to counter current criminal trends, address regulatory focal points and present compliance vulnerabilities can be challenging for professionals as the field is undergoing near constant change.

Just in the last decade, the role of the compliance officer has “expanded and gained more importance in financial institutions’ organizational structures,” Arreluce said. “The impact compliance professionals have now a days is much greater than what our peers had 10 years ago – this is in part thanks to changes in the regulatory environment and as a response to the 2008 financial crisis.”

As well, fincrime compliance professionals have had to better