In the last 10 years, the ACAMS UK chapter has become a force with which to be reckoned. Since its inception in 2011, the chapter board has comprised a stellar group of professionals, including veterans in law enforcement and the financial services industry.

ACAMS’ mission encourages active engagement in the community in the fight against financial crime. The ACAMS UK Chapter has actively encouraged this engagement by establishing a programme of thought-provoking and content-rich events, as well as networking opportunities, both online and in person. These events facilitate peer-to-peer networking and the sharing of ideas and mission-critical information. This enhances knowledge for both ACAMS’ members and other interested parties who want to learn about financial crime and increase our odds of beating the bad guys. The chapter board arranges three to four events per year. During 2020 and 2021, the chapter expanded its reach with online events that encouraged the participation and inclusion of audiences in the UK and across the world.

Topics Covered

Events over the past 10 years have addressed key topics involving fraud, developing financial crime frameworks, the use of technology and artificial intelligence-enabled solutions, managing tax evasion risks, enhancing transaction monitoring, understanding the ever-changing sanctions landscape, understanding wealth, counter-terrorist financing, regtech, the use of technology to manage regulatory processes and emerging financial crime threats in the cyber world.

The Board

The current co-chairs and board members were excited about the opportunity to collaborate closely with ACAMS and revamp the UK Chapter Board in 2021. The UK Chapter has seven board members: Katarina Cook, co-chair and head of financial crime, risk and compliance at Brewin Dolphin; Annalise Vineer, co-chair and senior manager, risk mitigation and assurance, business financial crime risk at HSBC Global Services; Adam Summers, membership manager/secretary and manager risk and compliance at Protiviti; Aamir Hanif, programme director and UK money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) at Stripe; Toby Whinnett communications manager and head of audit risk at LBG; Samar Pratt programming director and managing director and regional leader at Exiger and Rajeev Ahya, programming director and head of Corporate Bank KYC Policy and Education at Deutsche Bank.

The board looks forward to continuing its work to produce a series of world-class, timely and educational events throughout 2022 and beyond; to bolster the UK’s fight against fraud and financial crime, making the world a safer place to do business. 

Samar Pratt, CAMS-Audit, UK ACAMS Chapter Board Member, ukchapter@acams.org