EUROPEAN CONNECT
EU challenges : What is new ?
Editor ’ s note : European Connect is a section in the ACAMS Today magazine that will update members on ACAMS news and activities in Europe .
Lately , the EU has been ramping up its focus on preventing financial crime , with regulators creating entirely new paradigms for organizations operating here and the press reporting the industry ’ s news on its front pages , not the financial ones .
Particularly challenging for organizations in Europe is aligning their operations across the multiple jurisdictions in which they are based . At the time of this writing , there are indications that the U . K . will enforce a different sanctions regime to the EU post-Brexit that will increase the complexity of managing sanctions risk — an already complicated area .
This year , the European Parliament has also rejected a blacklist of countries prepared by the European Commission several times for relying too heavily on the Financial Action Task Force ’ s own blacklist . Parliamentarians have recommended the Commission take more of a ‘ zero-sum ’ approach to drawing this up , as they believe it should be expanded ( nationals from these countries will then be subject to greater checks when trying to do business in Europe ).
However , an overarching trend we are seeing is transparency . Regulators are demanding it and organizations are struggling to balance that requirement alongside strict data protection regimes . The Data Protection panel at our 2017 European Conference was well attended and highly rated as attendees heard how big European organizations are managing that push and pull .
Finally , I wanted to give you the dates of our upcoming events in Europe :
• Anti-Financial Crime Symposium – Ireland Dublin , October 19 , 2017
• Anti-Financial Crime Symposium – Nordics Copenhagen , November 16 , 2017
• KYC / CDD Boot Camp London , December 7 , 2017
Our European Chapters also continue to organize exciting networking and learning events , so I hope to have the chance to meet all of you somewhere in Europe soon .
Angela Salter , head of Europe , ACAMS , London , U . K ., asalter @ acams . org
86 ACAMS TODAY | SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER 2017 | ACAMS . ORG | ACAMSTODAY . ORG