Mar ’15 – May ’15 Issue

Issue 14.2

Issue: Vol. 14 No. 2

Featured

Rocket to the Next Career Level

Rocket to the Next Career Level

External movement has become increasingly commonplace in the compliance field in recent years. As banks and financial services firms suffer the ramifications of insufficient compliance investment, many are...

Become Inspired: AML Success Stories

Become Inspired: AML Success Stories

Our members are integral to the fight against financial crime, whether detecting a suspicious transaction, uncovering something unusual in your customer’s behavior or making a breakthrough in an...

From the Executive Vice President
ACAMS—Meeting the Challenge of Staying Relevant and Current

ACAMS—Meeting the Challenge of Staying Relevant and Current

As you are reading this, ACAMS is celebrating the 20th anniversary of our moneylaundering.com Annual International AML and Financial Crime Conference...

From the Editor
Preparing for Your Career in 3, 2, 1…

Preparing for Your Career in 3, 2, 1…

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was interesting to see a glimpse of the space program in...

Inside this Edition
Cyprus—Becoming a geopolitical hub in Europe?

Cyprus—Becoming a geopolitical hub in Europe?

Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Greece and east of Turkey. The country has been a member state of the European Union...

Business Model for a Terrorist Organization

Business Model for a Terrorist Organization

It has been said many times that the lifeblood of a terrorist organization is finance. If we liken a terrorist organization to a corporation, business planning would be an essential ingredient...


A Structure to Call Home

A Structure to Call Home

In anti-money laundering (AML), like many other worlds, there is a tendency to chase after the latest and greatest. Talks about cyber currencies, virtual bank-ing, smart money and the...


Original Sins

Original Sins

An American firm retrieved the customer data from its China business unit who received it from a data warehouse in the U.K. and screened it against both a regulatory list published by...


Confronting the Ever-Evolving Threat of Terrorism

Confronting the Ever-Evolving Threat of Terrorism

On a daily basis, media reports remind us of the brutality and barbaric reality of terrorism. Time and again, we are reminded that there are no safe havens from the reach of jihadists who...


De-Risking: What is a Community Banker to Do?

De-Risking: What is a Community Banker to Do?

As an employee of a community bank, I have noticed the effects of “de-risking” first hand. In the past few months my bank has received numerous walk-in customers and phone calls asking...


Do Not Bet Against It: Heightened Scrutiny of Casinos is Here to Stay

Do Not Bet Against It: Heightened Scrutiny of Casinos is Here to Stay

As large-scale casinos come closer to reality in New York and Massachusetts, licensees and state gaming commissions need to understand and address the federal government’s expectations...


Virtual Currencies Continue to Peek through the Shadows

Virtual Currencies Continue to Peek through the Shadows

Virtual currencies burst into the public eye in the summer and fall of 2013 with headline-making enforcement actions around money laundering, narcotics trafficking and unlicensed money...

Stewart McGlynn: Improving Our Fight Against Financial Crime

Stewart McGlynn: Improving Our Fight Against Financial Crime

Stewart McGlynn is the head of anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime risk for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which supervises Hong Kong’s banking sector. In this...

Rocket to the Next Career Level

Rocket to the Next Career Level

External movement has become increasingly commonplace in the compliance field in recent years. As banks and financial services firms suffer the ramifications of insufficient compliance...

Machine Learning: Advancing AML Technology to Identify Enterprise Risk

Machine Learning: Advancing AML Technology to Identify Enterprise Risk

Money laundering is currently the third largest “business” in the world after currency exchange and the auto industry. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) estimates money laundering...


BSA Form 8300: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

BSA Form 8300: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

With so much attention given to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and currency transaction reports (CTRs), it might be interesting to learn that Form 8300 is a distant cousin to the CTR. Although...


Compliance is NOT a Cost Center

Compliance is NOT a Cost Center

This old cliché quoted on the previous page and spoken by bank executives, compliance officers and even regulators, has unfortunately become a casual phrase leveled against financial...

Yuri Caballero: Puzzle Solving

Yuri Caballero: Puzzle Solving

Yuri Caballero has worked at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) for almost nine years. He started with the member services team and during his...

Liesel Bimmerle,CAMS—Englewood, CO, USA

Liesel Bimmerle, CAMS—Englewood, CO, USA

Liesel Bimmerle is a dedicated and enthusiastic professional with experience in financial institution and regulatory environments. Bimmerle currently serves as manager for Western Union’s...


John McCormick, CAMS—New York, NY, USA

John McCormick, CAMS—New York, NY, USA

John McCormick is a consultant in the Business Advisory Practice at Grant Thornton and is based out of the New York City area. He has over 20 years of financial industry experience specifically in...


Camilla Yellets, CAMS—Lancaster, PA, USA

Camilla Yellets, CAMS—Lancaster, PA, USA

Camilla Yellets is a regulatory compliance officer for AML Governance at Fulton Financial Corporation (FFC), a $17.1 billion financial holding company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania...

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Considering Business Intelligence in Transaction Monitoring Threshold-Tuning

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Considering Business Intelligence in Transaction Monitoring Threshold-Tuning

At the core of any financial institution’s anti-money laundering (AML) compliance department is its transaction monitoring system. The system analyzes transactional data against preset...


Driving Sales through AML Compliance Activities

Driving Sales through AML Compliance Activities

Pity the BSA compliance officer walking past a financial institution’s conference room at the end of a good quarter and seeing the retail folks celebrating an uptick in products and...

FATF Guidance for the Banking Sector on the Application of the Risk-Based-Approach

FATF Guidance for the Banking Sector on the Application of the Risk-Based-Approach

In October 2014, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach (RBA) for the Banking Sector. This guidance updates the 2007 guidance to bring it in...

Become Inspired: AML Success Stories

Become Inspired: AML Success Stories

Our members are integral to the fight against financial crime, whether detecting a suspicious transaction, uncovering something unusual in your customer’s behavior or making a...