Arpita Bedekar at the Fintelekt 12th Annual AML CFT Summit India 2023

In her opening address at Fintelekt’s 12th Annual AML/CFT Summit 2023, Arpita Bedekar, Director – Strategy & Planning, Fintelekt, highlighted some pertinent observations:

• Threat perceptions are changing immensely, with #fraud and #cybercrime now top threats for #moneylaundering and #terroristfinancing. Consequently, a unified, non-siloed approach to anti financial crime is something that is being very seriously discussed across leading organisations. 
• There is growing awareness about the likely impact of #crypto or #virtualassets on the role of the AML compliance officer – which seems to stem from a realisation that crypto is here to stay. The trend that we are seeing is towards significant investment in #training to understand these #risks better and to prepare the staff to face these risks, and definitely in specialised #technology for detecting and monitoring virtual currency #transactions.
• Risk Assessment is one of the top most priorities that #regulators and #supervisors have been enforcing in the #Asian region – effective and ongoing enterprise-wide #riskassessments – and rightly so because it is a starting point for applying the #riskbasedapproach which lies at the foundation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. In a recent survey we found a small proportion of institutions not yet taking #EWRA seriously. But in majority of the organisations, #AML #CFT risk assessments are being taken up as a key priority, with significant focus on the right technology tools and training towards more #effective EWRAs. 
• Digital transformation is one of the most exciting areas in the region, characterised by huge government investments especially due to the #financialinclusion potential. With all countries in #Asia at different stages in the maturity curve in terms of digitalising their #nationalidentity and allowing digital #onboarding and #customerverification, #India is being globally recognised as a #trailblazer in this aspect. A recent Fintelekt survey shows a great deal of #optimism around the #transformative potential for #regtech going forward.
• On the filing of #STR (suspicious transaction reports), over the years there has been a common complaint across countries by #reportingentities that they do not get adequate formal feedback on the submitted STRs, which is changing as we now see #FIUs taking full cognizance of this. #Publicprivatepartnerships are being seen as very significant initiatives to improve the overall effectiveness of the AML/CFT regime – and we are likely to see the advent of a far more #collaborative environment going forward.