The Banking Executive Magazine - Issue 150, June 2021

The Seventh Annual Arab – Cypriot Forum Topic: Cooperation between the pri- vate and public sector to fight finan- cial crime Speakers: Mr. Che Sidanius, Global Head of Financial Crime and Indus- try Affairs, Refinitiv / LSEG (UK) - Chair of Europe Chapter, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime and Mr. David Shepherd, Global Partner Director, Financial Crime, Refinitiv / LSEG (UK) - General Sec- retariat, MENA FCCG Advisor, MENA Chapter, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime Topic: Building a Strong, Process- Guided Compliance Unit Speaker: Mr. Arion Petasis, Special Adviser, Promontory Financial Group, an IBM Company Topic: Compliance challenges and potentials amid the digital transfor- mation era Speaker: Mrs. Aline Aziz, Head of Group Compliance, Credit Libanais Topic: Global AML Issues in 2021: Managing Risk while promoting fi- nancial inclusion. Speaker: Mr. Christoforos Livadiotis, Group Chief AML Officer, Trading Point of Financial Instruments FORUM BACKGROUND: Flows of dirty money can damage the stability and reputation of the fi- nancial sector and threaten the local markets, and terrorism shakes the very foundations of every society. The soundness, integrity and stability of banks and financial institutions and confidence in the financial sys- tem as a whole could be seriously jeopardized, add to that the De-risk- ing pattern adopted by Correspon- dent banks, therefore putting countries and their banking and fi- nancial systems in an extremely del- icate situation. Over the last decade, global banks have been tightening operations to comply with regulations designed to curtail money-laundering and terror- ism-financing. As a consequence, global banks have been limiting cor- respondent banking relationships (CBRs) with local banks in emerging and developing economies – a prac- tice referred to as “de-risking.” Certain global banks have terminated relationships – or “de-risked” – cer- tain local banks, but they have also established new relationships with other banks in the same countries. The idea that country risk is the pri- mary consideration doesn’t hold. Local (respondent) banks have been able to adjust by dealing with fewer correspondent banks or by establish- ing new relationships, which in some instances are with second or third- tier banks, which raises concerns about integrity that warrant authori- ties’ attention. Moreover, new and updated AML/CFT regulations were released by both the United States of America and the European Union; On January 1, 2021, the US Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA) as part of the National De- fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Likewise, as of December 3rd, 2020, the European Union’s Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Direc- tive (AMLD6) is in effect for all mem- ber states. Regulated entities operating in the union will need to be compliant by June 3, 2021. Like its predecessor, this new directive is aimed to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) rules in the union and place larger responsibility on regulated entities to fight money laundering. Specifically, the directive aims to expand the scope of existing legislation, clarify certain regulatory details and toughen criminal penal- ties. In this regards, the World Union of Arab Banks through The Seventh An- nual Arab-Cypriot Forum, is always keen to join efforts with international bodies and entities to safeguard the Arab – Cypriot Banks and financial institutions from potential threats and challenges and introduce the state of art means of combating these threats while abiding and complying with the regulatory framework and inter- national best practices. The Arab – Cypriot Forum has been accurately structured to showcase and highlight the future prospects and opportuni- ties by providing ample time and nat- ural situations for networking it provides an open platform for Arab and Cypriot compliance profession- als to meet, discuss and share the knowledge and experience through conversations, interactive panel dis- cussions, and presentations at a world-renowned gathering of indus- try professionals and thought leaders on topics. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 50 ISSUE 150 JUNE 2021