This edition of "Fridays with Fintelekt" features a conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services (www.fintelekt.com) and Dr Rohan Bedi, Executive Director, Singapore Financial Crime Compliance Association (SFCCA) (www.sfcca.com.sg) on the role and objectives of SFCCA; fintechs and bigtechs; AML compliance in digital banking; new AML/CFT challenges; enhancing Enterprise Wide Risk Assessment; effectiveness vs. efficiency while implementing FATF standards; and culture and conduct issues.

This edition of "Fridays with Fintelekt" features a conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services and Julian Dixon, CEO, Napier on financial crime trends; how should banks be better prepared to identify and deal with risk; differences in robustness of AML/CFT programs in different banks; overcoming automation hurdles; factors motivating banks to use innovation and better technologies for KYC and AML monitoring; and the use of artificial intelligence to facilitate faster and more efficient processing of suspicious transactions reports.

This episode features a 15 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Jermy Prenio, Senior Advisor - Financial Stability Institute, Bank for International Settlements, where the following points were discussed-

A brief overview of SupTech, its evolution and current status of adoption, Data-related challenges faced by AML/CFT authorities, Tools developed or being used by both AML/CFT supervisors and FIUs and implementation issues, SupTech success stories that could/should be used by other regulators or FIUs.

This episode features a 20 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Ravi Lahoti, Chief Audit Executive, Bandhan Bank where the following points were discussed-

The role of audit in the world of AML/CFT, Elements of an effective AML audit and how it should be conducted, How can AML/CFT audit findings be implemented to improve the compliance level in the bank going forward, Misconceptions about AML audits and How can AML audits contribute to increasing the effectiveness of an AML/CFT programme in the organisation.

This episode features a 30 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Christiaan Barnard, Head - Financial Intelligence Unit, New Zealand where the following points were discussed-

The bringing together of financial sector and other reporting entities from a regulatory and development point of view, Overview of the National Risk Assessment (NRA) on money laundering and terrorist financing was conducted in NZ last year, Trends in filing of suspicious transaction reports and thoughts on quality of reporting, The democracy of the FATF process for mutual evaluation and ranking of countries, Functions and outcomes of the New Zealand Public Private Partnership and Critical success factors for NZ in ensuring that risks emanating due to money laundering and terrorist financing are minimised in a sustainable manner.

This episode features a 45 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Duncan Jepson, Founder & Managing Director , Liberty Shared where the following points were discussed-

The extent of modern slavery globally, and geo-political issues that have influenced trends over the last decade, The expansion of modern slavery from being a human rights issue to also being a financial crime issue – the causes, milestones and resultant knowledge for the banking community, Advice to banks and regulators doing enough to better identify and report suspicious transactions related to modern slavery, The relation of proceeds of modern slavery to other predicate crimes and indirect impact on national security, Steps to be taken by banks to implement the correct red flag indicators and conduct optimum customer due diligence to identify possible offences in their customers’ supply chain of operations.

This episode features a 20 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Sandeep Mehra, Chief Executive Officer, Academy of Fraud Investigations where the following points were discussed-

Areas of banking business that are most prone to financial fraud, Reasons for frauds coming to the fore at very late stages when it becomes a major scam, Fraud prevention techniques and pre-requisites for a good investigation team, Building a good working partnership between business, control and investigation teams in the bank, Role of a trained investigation team in assisting with recovering assets, especially in cases of civil recovery.

This episode features a 60 minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Sydney Asubo, Executive Director, Financial Intelligence Authority, Uganda at which the following points were discussed-

Overview of the FIA, the challenges it faced since it was formed, and how it galvanized the financial sector and other reporting entities / accountable persons together to ensure adequate reporting of suspicious transactions, Key findings of the NRA, its recommendations, and the subsequent progress in the country in terms of policy implementation, Changes in levels of predicate offences over the last few years, both domestic and trans-national, Trends and expectations in quality and quantity of reporting suspicious transactions reports and Is the FATF process for mutual evaluation and ranking of countries democratic, especially since many countries would have fewer resources and therefore should there be different methodologies for countries with differing challenges, so that they are not unfairly positioned on the global financial stage

This episode features a 30-minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Liat Shetret, Senior Adviser - Crypto Policy and Regulation, Elliptic, at which the following points are discussed:

Trends on cryptocurrencies being used to launder money and subsequent risks and challenges for banks in raising suspicious transaction alerts, The role of blockchain technology to counter specific AML/CFT risks, Intermingling of illicit funds between fiat currency and crypto currency, Regulatory stand across jurisdictions on dealing with cryptocurrencies, Preparing law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and the judiciary to better understand cases involving cryptocurrencies

This episode features a 45-minute conversation between Shirish Pathak, Managing Director, Fintelekt Advisory Services, and Jonathan Rogerson, Head of Business, Strategy & Direction, APAC South, Accuity, at which the following points are discussed: