Author Archives: Brian Monroe
ACFCS Jobs Corner: In fincrime compliance job hunt, research diligently, apply carefully, network thoughtfully, says Zachary Plotkin
The Skinny: The need to wargame when it comes to finding a dream position has always been important for professionals in the fields of anti-money laundering (AML), fraud, corruption, investigations, cybersecurity and the like, because the arcane alchemy of skills needed to ensure success can be both very broad and very specific at the same […]
After months of court battles, Westpac settles with Austrac, agrees to pay $1.3 billion for millions of AML failings, ties to child exploitation network
The Skinny: The big Aussie AML battle in the bush is over. After months of haggling in a widely-watched game of brinkmanship, Australia’s top financial regulator has issued a record, statement making penalty of more than $1 billion against the country’s second largest bank for fincrime compliance failings – the most serious of which tied […]
Special ACFCS/S2FIS Webinar Series Preview and Financial Crimecast: To conquer compliance, take a hybrid threat finance approach, switch focus from actions to actors
The Skinny: In this ACFCS Financial Crimecast we preview a special six-week webinar series and course on the transformative power of taking a hybrid threat finance approach to implementing anti-money laundering (AML) programs. The argument: by switching the focus from broad actions and pre-determined scenarios to responding to the actual transactional DNA of threat actors, […]
ACFCS Member Spotlight: A strong sense of justice, passion to inspire leads to career fighting crime as prosecutor, journalist, compliance thought leader for Gina Jurva
The Skinny: In this ACFCS Member Spotlight, Gina Jurva, an attorney and Manager for Market Intelligence & Enterprise Content-Corporates & Governments for the Thomson Reuters Institute (TRI), gives a glimpse into her journey from playing prosecutor in her home to crafting cases in real life and becoming a thought leader in the field of financial […]
Leak of thousands of FinCEN SARs reveals large international banks still struggling on AML, serving illicit gatekeepers, corrupt powerbrokers, terror groups: ICIJ report
The Skinny: The highly-anticipated leak of sensitive, suspicious filings by the U.S. Treasury’s top counter-crime compliance body has turned into a deluge, a watershed moment for investigative journalism, but a dark damnation of the banking sector’s cumulative efforts to stop the illicit, the corrupt and the chaos bringers. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) […]
FinCEN pushing massive overhaul of AML regime to better achieve, define effectiveness, produce better intel for law enforcement
The Skinny: The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is engaging in a broad overhaul of the country’s financial crime compliance defenses, shifting more toward creating “effective and reasonably designed” programs that produce filings with a “high degree of usefulness” to law enforcement – even though the term has no “consistent definition” in current […]
Think like a criminal, act like an investigator: Key takeaways on how to fight illicit finance from a chat with ACFCS Dutch chapter members Ruth Post and Owen Strijland
The Skinny: In some cases, to fight crime and create stout compliance defenses, you need to think like a criminal to identify and report on their illicit schemes. But the dedicated financial crime compliance team can’t do it alone. Financial institutions need to turn classic anti-money laundering (AML) foils into allies by extending broad spectrum […]
In cryptic statement, FinCEN warns of leak, theft tied to SAR database, but whether a drip or a deluge, answer coming soon
The Skinny: The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the country’s financial intelligence unit (FIU), has issued a statement about several impending news reports about a breach related to its anti-money laundering (AML) filing database. The arbiter of financial crime compliance defenses in the United States has warned that a number of unnamed news […]
The New Military End Use and End User Regulations – Addressing the civil-military fusion nexus through finer slices of knowledge: Kharon Whitepaper analysis
The Skinny: The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to tighten restrictions on certain exports to China, Russia, and Venezuela intended for military end use or military end users (MEU) effective June 29, 2020. The new rule broadens the list of items covered by military […]
Regional Report: Canada has done ‘amazing things’ to fight crime through public-private partnerships, but still hampered by stringent privacy rules, lack of AML safe harbors
The Skinny: In recent years, Canada has done “amazing things” in the arena of stronger information sharing between regulators, banks and law enforcement to target some of the most insidious financial crimes of our times, including human trafficking, which became a global model to help other regions. But some professionals say the region is still […]
Regional Report: In face of massive EU AML scandals, prosecutors, regulators, banks looking to bolster information sharing, accountability, liability
The Skinny: In this regional report focusing on Europe, the ACFCS Netherlands Chapter looks at some of the EU AML scandals and issues in and out of banks that can make compliance difficult. The takeaways come from the “Fintech and FinCrime in Europe” session, a panel from ACFCS Fincrime Virtual Week, the association’s first-ever fully […]
ACFCS Fincrime Virtual Week Takeaways Part One: More convergence, collaboration needed by banks, regulators, investigators to counter pandemic-fueled fraud, cyber-enabled attacks
The Skinny: More than 5,600 financial crime compliance professionals registered for the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists’ (ACFCS) first-ever fully online conference – Fincrime Virtual Week. The five-day event had the overarching themes of “Disruption, Innovation and Resiliency” with 30-plus sessions and dozens of speakers, including top federal regulators, investigative agencies and thought leaders […]