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: Addleshaw Goddard LLP [60 Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4AG]
⏰ Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm

AGENDA

1. IMLPO Chair Opening Speech

2. Keynote Speaker- TBC

3. 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. 

4. 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 in the US and the same time of greater focus in the UK by including corruption offences in sanctions designations by the 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. 

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Panel 6 -The heightened costs of financial crime risk management and the request for deregulation- the right move to aid growth or is it the final blow to effective financial crime frameworks?

Panel discussion to consider are the growth/competition expectations coming at the expense of effective regulatory compliance and risk management.
The panel will explore some of the suggested changes such as the removal of the SMR regime, reduce enforcement action, focus on growth and general relaxation of some rules eg authorisation/gateway into the market and wider global regulation.

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.

Not yet a member? Consider joining us for access to this event and the chance to connect with professionals dedicated to combating financial crime. Stay tuned for further updates as we finalise the event details.