Open finance, API banking, Payment Services Directive (PSD2)...the concept of open banking can be called many things. But how exactly is this technology changing the world for risk and compliance professionals today and what potential does it have to mold the profession going forward?

Join us for another episode of KYC Decoded as we welcome Alessio Balduini, CEO and founder of Credit Data Research, and Francis Marinier, former banking compliance officer and now Moody’s KYC Industry Practice Lead, who together unpack the topic of open banking and its implications for the financial industry. Key questions explored include:

• What is open banking and how long has it been around?
• What opportunities does open banking provide for risk and compliance professionals?
• What does adoption of open banking look like?
• Are there any potential risks associated with open banking?
• How might bad actors respond to the rise of open banking?

If you would like more information on open banking, be sure to check out these resources:

• Open Banking Impact Report
• Open Banking Limited (OBL)
• Credit Data Research
• "Evolution of Open Finance: A Focus on the European and Italian Landscapes", International Banker
• "Open Finance ecosystem could end money laundering in sports betting in Brazil", Games Magazine Brazil

Visit our website to learn how you can take your compliance program to the next level. Please feel free to reach out – we would love to hear from you.

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What if your anti-financial crime program could build investigation models using sensitive data you may not have direct access to – in a totally compliant way? In this episode, we learn from Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) expert, Michael Hughes, Chief Business Offer at Duality Technologies, about the potential PETs have to change the game of KYC.

Follow along as Michael and host, Alex Pillow, discuss all things PETs, exploring topics like:

• The value PETs could bring to the world of AFC
• Privacy rights of an individual vs. useful data for institutions
• Various PET use cases
• How regulatory bodies feel about the rise of PETs
• Industry sectors that have become early adopters of PETs (the answer may surprise you)

For additional resources mentioned in this episode, check out the links below on Duality’s website:

• Zero footprint investigations
• Collaborative AI

Visit our website to learn how Moody’s Compliance and third-party risk management can take AFC in your organization to the next level, and please feel free to get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!

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It is safe to say technology has done wonders when it comes to AML professionals tackling financial crime, but, on the flip side, it is important to understand how technology is being used by those committing the crimes.

From video game online marketplaces to virtual currency mixers, how can we follow the money when tech is used to cover its tracks?

In this episode of KYC Decoded, we welcome back esteemed guest, Geoff White, investigative journalist and author of the upcoming book, Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World’s Deadliest Crooks.

Get an inside look at some of the crimes that are featured in Rinsed, and listen as Geoff and host, Alex Pillow, explore questions like:

• How has the digitization of currency impacted the way criminals launder money?
• Is there a future where crypto can be crime-free?
• What role does social media play for bad actors?
• Should technology companies be held accountable for how money launderers use them?

Rinsed is available for preorder and will be published on June 13, 2024. To take the AML and compliance programs in your organization to the next level, be sure to check out our website and get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

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Change is essential to survive and thrive in any enterprise. As we narrow in on the world of AML and KYC, the adaptation of sophisticated criminals is evident, so the question arises: what disruptions are needed to outsmart these bad actors? In this episode of KYC Decoded, Head of Strategy & Content at Sardine, Simon Taylor, lends us his astute and perceptive expertise as we explore this questions further. 

You won’t want to miss this energetic and educational conversation with host, Alex Pillow. Their wide-ranging discussion covers topics like:

• The different areas of KYC and AML that have the greatest opportunities for disruption
• The role of advancing technologies and how they might be used in particular use cases
• How change could impact industry professionals

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, be sure to check out the recommended resources mentioned in the show:

• Sardine.ai webinars
• Sardine.ai blog
• Follow Soups Ranjan on LinkedIn

If you are a change-maker looking to disrupt the KYC and AML processes in your organization, be sure to visit our website and get in touch – we would love to hear from you.
 

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 set off a series of global sanctions enforcement actions. The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has meted out sanctions to curb Russia’s defense procurement, energy weaponization, and international trade activity. To date, the EU has also imposed 12 sanctions packages on restrictive measures – with the 13th to be formally approved in February.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Andrea Viski, founder and director of the Strategic Trade Research Institute and editor-in-chief of the Strategic Trade Review, on how the global sanctions environment has changed since the invasion, and where the biggest risks in sanctions-related financial crime lie.

This conversation covers topics including:

• The impact of sanctions packages on Russia’s economy – where the sanctions have been effective in disconnecting Russia from global trade and economic activity
• How the global sanctions environment has changed since the invasion
• New challenges KYC and AML professionals now face, and how they can mitigate sanctions-related risks
• The latest sanctions evasion trends and red flags

For additional resources mentioned in this episode, visit:

• WorldECR
• Strategic Trade Review

If you want to better detect sanctions-related risk in your organization, visit our website, read our latest whitepaper on sanctions, and get in touch with one of our experts – we’d love to hear from you.

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The creation of the AMLA, the authority on money laundering in the European Union, is imminently upon us. And the critical question compliance professionals are wondering is: where will it live? Choosing an EU city to be the representative of 26 different cultures most certainly has needed careful thought and planning. The official location choice is set to be announced February 22, 2024, in the meantime we check in with Francis Marinier, Moody’s Analytics Financial Crime and Compliance Industry Practice Lead, to discuss his predictions.

Follow along to hear more about:

• What the AMLA is and why it was formed
• Why cities would want to be home to the AMLA
• What the European Parliament must consider when selecting a location
• Pros and cons of potential host cities such as Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, and Dublin

For more information, visit the AML Intelligence website, where you can also check back in on February 22 for the final decision. To find out how Moody’s Analytics AML solutions can help your organization, please visit our website and get in touch.

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Much has changed since we last visited the US Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) in March of 2023 on KYC Decoded. Now that FinCEN has officially rolled out its beneficial ownership database, what is the lay of the land for risk and compliance professionals? In this episode, we welcome back Jim Richards, former BSA officer, author, speaker, and CEO of RegTech Consulting to share his thoughts on where we are now, where there is room for improvement, and just how useful this database will be when combatting financial crime.

Key highlights of this educational discussion include:

• Jim’s time testifying before US congress in June of 2023
• The current limitations around access to the database
• The types of organizations that are exempt from the database
• The level of threat the database poses – or doesn’t pose – to financial criminals in both the short term and longer term
• Suggestions on how FinCEN should move forward

If you would like to find out more about the work Jim Richards does or the CTA, please check out our recommended resources:

• Jim Richards’s personal blog
• FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information
• Moody’s content on Ultimate Beneficial Ownership

If you are looking for deeper insight into who you are doing business with, learn more on our website and feel free to get in touch.

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There are plenty of shell companies formed for legitimate reasons. However, as recently uncovered in a major case in Singapore where 3 billion SGD of assets were frozen, shell companies can also be used for more nefarious purposes. This risk is not always easy to spot, especially when relying on manual, time-invasive processes.

In this episode KYC Decoded, host Alex Pillow welcomes Moody’s Analytics Product Manager, Kate Weymouth, and Head of the Financial Crime Practice Group for APAC and the Middle East, Choon Hong Chua.

Their dynamic and educational conversation around shell companies and their risks includes:

• Legitimate reasons for shell companies vs. illegitimate reasons
• The seven primary indicators of shell company risk
• A deeper look into the recent Singapore shell company scam
• How Moody’s Shell Company Indicator automates traditionally manual and time consuming processes with powerful data

For additional resources mentioned in this conversation, be sure to check out:

• FATF paper ‘Best Practices on Beneficial Ownership for Legal Persons’
• FATF paper, ‘Concealment of Beneficial Ownership’
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), ‘Effective Practices to Detect and Mitigate the Risk from Misuse of Legal Persons’
• ‘Risky business? The seven indicators of shell company risk’ data visualization
• Seven indicators of shell company risk blog

If you would like to know more about how Shell Company Indicator can better identify shell company risk in your organization, please visit our website and feel free to get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

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Every year, on January 11, the US recognizes National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Human trafficking – currently a $150 billion industry – continues to be a pervasive threat around the globe, with criminals profiting from the enslavement of other people. This brings us to the obvious question: what can anti-financial crime and risk professionals do to make this world a safer place and help put an end to this abhorrent practice?

In this episode, we delve into this pressing issue with experts: Christopher Kemp, Director of Enterprise Operations at the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative; Chris Bagnall, Solutions Director at Quantexa; and Karim Rajwani, Head of Product at Sigma360. Their conversation sheds an important light on dealing with this crime, focusing on:

• The primary forms of human trafficking
• The staggering scale of the problem
• Strategies and solutions to stop it
• The role of data and technology in empowering professionals to dismantle trafficking networks
• Immediate, actionable steps we can implement to make a difference

To learn more about this important topic, we encourage you to explore these additional resources:

• Webinar, ‘Breaking Chains with AI: Advanced Detection of Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking Networks’
• ACAMS Article of the Year, ‘Understanding Human Trafficking’
• ACAMS Back to the Basics
• ACAMS Fighting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking course
• Blog, ‘Decision Intelligence is the Key To Stopping Modern Slavery And Human Trafficking’
• The National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (NAP)
• Wear Blue Day campaign
• Polaris website
• UN Office on Drugs and Crime Human Trafficking website
• Stop the Traffik website
•  US Department of State Understanding Human Trafficking fact sheet
• Freedom United website
• INTERPOL website
• Government of Canada Operational Alert
• Government of Canada Updated Indicators
• WeProtect Project Shadow

Find other ways your organization can help combat human trafficking - visit our website - and please feel free to get in touch; we would love to hear from you.

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"Fighting financial crime" has long been a rallying cry within the AML profession, but could this way of thinking actually be doing us all a disservice? While an admirable goal for any compliance risk management program, it may actually be too limiting and overlook how the BSA Officer/MLRO role can also drive business strategy and growth.

In this episode of KYC Decoded, host Alex Pillow welcomes Vic Maculaitis, 3-time board-appointed BSA officer and founder of i3strategies, a consultancy that works to modernize the financial crime risk and compliance ecosystem. This provocative and candid conversation explores:

• The primary responsibility of a BSA officer
• Outcomes over checkboxes
• Compensation for compliance officers
• How generative AI plays into the future of the industry

For resources discussed during this episode, be sure to check out:

• The LinkedIn post that inspired this conversation
• Perspective, by i3strategies

If you’d like to level up your compliance program, visit our website and reach out for more information. We’d love to hear from you.

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