The AFC Professional of the Month for November was awarded to Jennifer Hanley-Giersch for her vast experience in and knowledge of anti-financial crime (AFC). Hanley-Giersch is a co-founder and managing partner of Berlin Risk and ALL AML and advisor to Blackdot Solutions. She has worked in investigations and AFC for 22 years. Hanley-Giersch holds an Advanced CAMS-Audit (CAMS-Audit) certification from ACAMS and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) certification. She was awarded the CAMS-Audit designation in 2019 for her paper on reputational risk assessment.

Hanley-Giersch has worked on a wide range of complex investigations globally and has managed numerous AFC advisory projects involving sanctions. She is a subject-matter expert for international institutions on anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) issues, including AFC regulatory matters.

Hanley-Giersch contributed to “The REGTECH Book” as an expert on AFC technology, with a particular focus on customer due diligence (CDD). In addition, she has been involved in various risk assessment and remediation projects.¹ She has a track record in developing industry standards and methods of CDD, as well as tools for risk analysis and the assessment of reputational and integrity issues.

She is also a member of the Deutsches Institut für Compliance (DICO) working group for AML in the nonfinancial sector and the due diligence and know your customer compliance standards group. Besides collaborating on industry standards in this area, Hanley-Giersch most recently contributed to the risk assessment chapter of the supply chain and human rights due diligence standard published by DICO in 2022.

Since 2008, she has been a regular contributor and editorial committee member of the ACAMS Today publication and has published widely on current compliance topics. Hanley-Giersch has supported the development of various ACAMS training programs and participates as a designated ACAMS instructor. She is a founding member and board member of the ACAMS Germany Chapter,² where she is responsible for the chapter’s programs.³

Hanley-Giersch speaks fluent English, Italian and German and has a good understanding of French and Spanish.

1. Janos Barberis, Douglas W. Arner and Ross P. Buckley, “The REGTECH Book: The Financial Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Visionaries in Regulation,” Wiley, August 2019, https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+REGTECH+Book%3A+The+Financial+Technology+Handbook+for+Investors%2C+Entrepreneurs+and+Visionaries+in+Regulation-p-9781119362142
2. ACAMS Germany Chapter, https://www.acams.org/en/chapters/europe/germany-chapter
3. Know your chapter: ACAMS Germany Chapter, ACAMS Today, https://www.acamstoday.org/topics/all-topics/chapter/germany-chapter/