New Challenges
in Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime
a series of half-day, practical workshops for practitioners
Thursday 6th December 2007 &
Tuesday 15th January 2008
24th floor, Tower 42, London EC2
Workshop one
UNDERSTANDING TRANSACTION MONITORING SYSTEMS: WHAT THEY CAN AND CAN’T DO
Thursday 6th December 2007 – morning
Transaction Monitoring is integral to the risk-based approach because the aim is to enable business to flow smoothly while recognising the level of risk posed by individual clients. Without a very clear picture of the client’s financial behaviour at any one point in time, the risk-based approach is operating with a reduced level of information, which can signficantly reduce its effectiveness.
The recent KPMG Global Anti-Money Laundering Survey 2007 has also highlighted the continuing need by the AML community for transaction monitoring systems that can meet the enhanced standards of compliance requirement increasingly being demanded by financial regulators.
While a steady flow of new AML computer software systems are being brought to market, of course, the question is raised as to how many of them truly offer any form of meaningful transaction monitoring facility.
This workshop will offer a thorough overview of what transaction monitoring systems should seek to provide – and what they can’t or don’t do! - and what practitioners should be looking for when choosing, introducing and implementing such a system.
Programme
08.30 Coffee and registration
09.00 What does transaction monitoring really mean?
Re-examining the meaning of a ‘transaction’
What are we looking for by monitoring transactions?
How does this help to determine an ‘unusual’ activity?
09.45 What is the meaning of ‘suspicious’?
How should a ‘suspicious’ transaction be defined?
What is the ‘risk-based’ approach towards bank account use?
The needle in the haystack principle
Defining the needle and defining the haystack
10.30 Coffee
10.50 Establishing the 3 ‘V’s principle
Identifying the norms of the individual account
Defining the search parameters of the account
Determining the risk-based approach to defining parameters
Managing potential false positives
11.35 Interpreting alerts – a practitioner’s experience
Understanding the limits of alert generation
Managing the analytical response
Determining the ‘suspicious’ transaction
Defining the disclosure ‘best practice’
12.20 Closing discussion
12.30 Close of workshop and lunch
Workshop two
TIPPING OFF, CONSENT AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE UMBS CASE
Thursday 6th December 2007 – afternoon
The afternoon workshop will examine the highly contentious question of tipping off, and how it can impact upon the FIU consent issue.
It will take the form of an in-depth case study of the recent Court of Appeal decision in Regina (UMBS Online Ltd) v Serious Organised Crime Agency and Another.
The case itself will be deconstructed and the key points explained. The Court of Appeal’s decision in the UMBS case appears to state that persons who have an interest in the outcome of specific funds that have been frozen by law enforcement action can require SOCA to review their refusal of consent findings, if so required.
In this workshop, we shall aim to explain how this decision was arrived at, how it opens new doors to issues of consent, why the law has got to this state of affairs - and what the practical, day-to-day implications are for practitioners as an immediate result.
Programme
12.30 Lunch and registration
13.30 Consent and Tipping off: a review
Consent – recent decisions
Reviewing the tipping off principles
Why preventing tipping off is so important
14.15 The UMBS case
Outlining the facts of the case
Establishing the procedure of the appeal
Looking at the conduct of the parties
15.00 Tea
15.20 The UMBS case continued
16.05 The implications of the Court of Appeal decision
What were the outcomes of the hearing?
What implications do these outcomes present for the future?
16.45 Closing discussion
17.00 Close of workshop
Workshop three
POLITICALLY EXPOSED PERSONS: A REVIEW OF THE LATEST ISSUES
Tuesday 15th January 2008 – morning
This workshop will examine the new definition of a PEP as outlined in the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and will discuss the new requirements for AML and financial crime practitioners when handling PEP clients – whether these be potential new business or existing clients, where the decision is whether to continue doing business or not.
It will look in detail at the attitudes of both EU and US regulators towards PEPs, and will examine the way in which the Americans are seeking to extend their geopolitical remit in this space. The US has recently adopted a very rigid attitude towards those whom they regard as “state kleptocrats”, and have a declared policy of zero tolerance of their activities. Their new policies arise in part from their stated aims of providing assistance to the emerging nations of the Third World, but the outcomes of their actions have significant implications for other areas of client activity, and therefore for all practitioners encountering actual and potential PEPs in the normal course of business.
The workshop will discuss in detail the practical process of implementing a PEP compliance programme.
Programme
8.30 Coffee and registration
09.00 One man’s PEP is another man’s business opportunity
Determining the meaning of a PEP in the light of the new Regulations
The EU definition
The US definition
09.45 Why are we required to be concerned about PEPs?
The EU attitude towards PEPs
The US attitude towards PEPs
Other related issues: corruption, terrorist financing
10.30 Coffee
10.50 Determining a PEP compliance programme
Obtaining senior management approval
Establishing sources of funds
The meaning of enhanced due diligence (including ongoing monitoring)
11.35 Dealing with US attitidues
Understanding US concerns
The ‘kleptocrat’ mentality
Identifying corrupt regimes
Case examples
12.20 Closing discussion
12.30 Close of workshop and lunch
Workshop four
US SANCTIONS AND EXTRATERRITORIAL POWERS
Tuesday 15th January 2008 – afternoon
Sanctions by US authorities are having a major impact upon the way in which many countries now do business, and the existence of sanctions lists and ‘rogue states’ is putting pressure on non-US businesses to comply with US requirements, for fear of having their dollar payments stopped and sequestered inside the jurisdiction of the US courts.
Many practitioners have expressed their deep concerns over the impact of US extraterritorial powers, and there are not a great number of easy answers to any of the conundrums posed by their application. OFAC and its attendant problems is of significant concern to many, yet its powers are not applicable to any non-US institution.
This workshop will examine these powers which the US authorities insist they must be allowed to operate, and examine the real implications for practitioners of breaches of these statutes.
Programme
12.30 Lunch and registration
13.30 Determining the US attitudes towards foreign actions
Terrorism?
Charities?
14.15 US initiatives
Unilateral
Multi-lateral
OFAC and other powers
15.00 Tea
15.20 US Powers to intervene abroad
The Patriot Act
The Money Laundering Control Act
Financial freezing powers
Interbank actions
Impact on trade finance
16.40 Closing discussion
17.00 Close of workshop
