The Evolution of AML: Back to Basics

The ACAMS Connecticut Chapter’s event, “The Evolution of Anti-Money Laundering—Back to Basics,” held at Foxwoods Resort Casino on February 5, 2016, was a success. Despite challenging weather conditions, more than 200 people from over 90 firms across the Northeast were in attendance.

Special guest, John J. Byrne, Esq., CAMS, executive vice president of ACAMS, kicked off the program with an update on ACAMS. Next, Rick Small, CAMS, executive director, anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crimes, Ernst & Young LLP, joined Byrne for a discussion on regulatory trends and current events in AML, including some recent enforcement actions, tone at the top, personal liability of compliance officers, the proposed beneficial ownership rule, independent evaluations of AML programs and geographic targeting orders.

The topic for Panel I was "Risk Assessing Your Risk Assessment." Panelists discussed the challenges and increased exposures resulting from heightened regulatory scrutiny of risk assessments.

Panel II focused on "Views and Expectations for the BSA Officer." Here, the Panel discussed compliance officer liability, board and staff training, as well as the use of SAR Committees and other initiatives to assist with the SAR decision-making process.

Panel III spoke about "AML Investigations and SARs," sharing some best and worst practices in SAR writing and 2016 enforcement priorities for regulatory agencies.

The final panel discussed sanctions, specifically sanctions/compliance program challenges with regards to perspectives on Cuba, Iran, Burma and the Crimean region; sanctions enforcement trends and responding to departmental resource and budget allocations; as well as different operational challenges between small and large financial institutions.

To close the day, Alicia R. Kinsman, director, CT Coalition Against Trafficking, International Institute of Connecticut, provided powerful real life examples of human trafficking cases in Bridgeport, CT. Throughout the event, the CT Chapter collected donations toward the Polaris Project, which helps to bring an end to human trafficking.

The night before the event, over 100 attendees gathered at Foxwoods for bowling, billiards and networking.

If there was any information provided during the event about which you would like to know more, please contact us at connecticutchapter@acams.org.

The CT Chapter would like to thank the event speakers and our generous sponsors for their support:

Speakers:

Scott, Andreozzi, FIU leader, GE Capital Americas
Sharon Blanchette, director, Special Projects Enterprise Governance, Risk & Compliance (EGRC) Solutions, FIS Global
Paul Burgoyne, senior manager, AML Services, Deloitte Transactions & Business Analytics LLP
John J. Byrne, Esq., executive vice president, ACAMS
Traci R.E. Carpenter, VP, BSA/OFAC/AML officer, Savings Institute Bank & Trust
John P. Cronin, senior manager, Fraud Investigations and Dispute Services, Ernst & Young LLP
Frank Ewing, partner, AML RightSource
James J. Finnerty, SVP and associate deputy global AML officer—U.S., TD Bank
Robin Fujio, BSA officer, Liberty Bank
Steven Goldberg, global co-head of Capital Markets, Crowe Horwath LLP
William Goss, director of Business Development, Telavance Inc.
Jason Grasso, financial crimes solution specialist, Security Intelligence, SAS
Uday Gulvadi, director—Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance, Telavance Inc.
Alicia R. Kinsman, director, CT Coalition Against Trafficking, International Institute of Connecticut
John MacKessy, director and global head of AML monitoring, Citi Cards
Darrin McLaughlin, managing director, chief compliance and privacy officer, RDC
Brenda Perrotti, sanctions and export controls leader, Mastercard
Michael T. Renehan, special agent, IRS-CI
Lauren J. Resnick, partner, White Collar and Corporate Investigations, BakerHostetler
Michael Shove, special agent, U.S. Secret Service, New Haven Resident Office
Rick Small, senior advisor, AML and Financial Crimes, Ernst & Young LLP
Eric A. Sohn, director of business product, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance
Dean Thomas, deputy head of intelligence, Standard Chartered Bank
Denise Wright, vice president, Sanctions Advisory, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ