Annual Financial Crime Conference 2025

New World Order - Changing the Financial Crime Landscape for the Better?

Mark your calendars! We are excited to announce our Annual Financial Crime Conference, taking place on 19 June 2025. This highly anticipated event will gather industry professionals, experts, and thought leaders to discuss the latest trends, challenges, and innovations in financial crime prevention and anti-money laundering. The overarching theme this year will be the evolving financial crime landscape and how to adapt, with a specific focus on ABC.

Event details:
🗓 Date: 19 June 2025
📍 Location: 60 London Wall, London EC2M 5TQ
⏰ Time: 10:00am - 5:00pm

AGENDA

Institute Chair Opening Address

Keynote Speaker:  Baroness Margaret Hodge - UK Anti Corruption Champion

Session 1: What NOT to do when faced with regulatory scrutiny 
Avoid falling into enforcement through failures in communication or a lack of strategy for engagement. Industry experts will provide insight through anonymised real-life examples of recent enforcement hits and near-misses. We’ll examine how to mobilise in the event of unexpected regulatory interactions, and look at strategies for successfully dealing with regulatory interest. Speakers will scan the enforcement horizon and look at areas of future regulatory focus. 

Confirmed speakers:
- Saima Hanif KC (leading counsel on high profile FCA and PRA cases)

Session 2: ABC enforcement – Given recent geopolitical changes and the US position on FCPA, can a successful and pro-active ABC enforcement agenda be maintained at global level? 
The evolving geopolitical landscape has seen a stay on one of the most powerful ABC legislation, the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the US and the same time of greater focus in the UK by including corruption offences in sanctions designations by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). With diverging risk appetites, what should firms expect on the ABC horizon scan, and what would be the impact of less legal and regulatory focus on ABC offences. The panel will consider recommendations of what needs to change at legal/policy level to ensure momentum is kept. 

Confirmed speakers:
- Dr Anna Bradshaw -  Expert sanctions and criminal lawyer and RUSI Associate Fellow. Anna co-edits The Guide to Sanctions, published by Global Investigations Review.
- Dr Susan Hawley - Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption and leading Anti Corruption Expert
- Serious Fraud Office Representation - Name to be confirmed

Session 3: Exploring the Uyghur decision – what does it mean for the Nominated Officer/MLRO?
To SAR or not to SAR – what the Uyghur decision means for firms in the context of adequate consideration, suspicious activity reporting and supply chain due diligence. Key figures from the case will help us understand what additional CDD processes should be deployed, and we’ll consider whether MLROs/NO now need to be extra cautious in oversight arrangements dealing with third parties and supply chains. We’ll focus on a practical response to this decision, in the context of some frequent real-world scenarios encountered by firms. We’ll also look at the new Supreme Court decision in El Khouri regarding the territoriality of ML charges, and how this decision will impact SARs reporting of conduct identified abroad

Confirmed Speakers:
- Anna Clifford  - Leading counsel from Red Lion Chambers specialising in money laundering and proceeds of crime work. Anita represented World Uyghur Congress.
- Dr Helen Taylor - Senior Legal Research and lead for Spotlight on Corruption's AML and Court Monitoring programme

Session 4: Corporate Liability – Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins?
Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth – we’ll talk about recent changes to corporate criminal liability with a focus on how to avoid these sins in the implementation of a practical programme to protect your Firm from liability. We’ll canter through the concepts of corporate criminal liability for fraud, and the senior manager model and look at real world examples which are likely to catch firms out in the coming months as we move past implementation towards the first investigations into conduct happening now.

Confirmed speakers:
- Simon Fell- Ex UK Fraud Champion and MP, founder of the AUKUS Caucus, and Director of Fraud and Financial Crime at Fullbrook Strategies
- Oonagh Van Den Berg  - Financial Crime Expert, Founder of Raw Compliance, Lecturer at the School of International Financial Services, ex-Uphold Inc Chief Platform Officer and Crypto.UK chair

Session 5: Non-Financial Misconduct (NFM) - What does it mean and what will it change?
“Non- Financial Misconduct is (regulatory) misconduct- plain and simple” - Chris Woolard - former FCA senior executive stated in 2018 
The FCA is expected to provide industry guidance on non financial misconduct in June 2025. This is in the backdrop of the Odey and Staley decision notices, the non financial misconduct survey, findings from Treasury Select Committee and industry surveys that were undertaken. However what will change, if at all, and what will this mean in practice? The panel will explore what risks firms should be aware of, how to practically address them given that NFM is increasingly a regulatory/wider legal issue not simply an employment one, and how MLROs/ and Heads of Compliance should consider their roles in internal investigations. The panel will also consider the role whistleblowing has in identifying NFM and the common pitfalls to avoid.

Confirmed speakers:
- Arpita Dutt - Leading Whistleblowing and Investigations expert and Chair of whistleblowing think-tank Parrhesia. Arpita had a very successful career as a claimant focussed Whistleblowing lawyer, and creating new precedent in the space.
- Francesca West - MD of James and West, strategic litigation firm to advance WB protections including the recent Josie Stewart case confirming Whistleblowing protections for public servants.
- Clive Robins - Whistleblowing lead at Nationwide. previous Senior Manager of Intelligence and Investigations at CMA and Head of Serious, Complex, and Major incident investigation and professional standards.

Fireside chat: The Role of Technology and AI in Managing Complex Financial Crime risk
Fireside chat with Navex and EFI to consider the role of technology and managing complex financial crime. This full-day conference will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, and sessions covering critical topics in financial crime prevention practice. As always, it will provide an excellent opportunity for networking, learning, and sharing best practices with peers in the industry.

- Rob Cutler - Director of Efficient Frontiers International 
- Jan Stapper - Regulatory Solutions Director at Navex

Stay tuned for further updates as we finalise the event details

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