Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Challenges
Kuwait City – State of Kuwait 14 – 15 February 2016
Background:
Regulatory initiatives are continuously developing in response to the financial crisis. Across the globe major supervisors and politicians have acted to establish new prudential regulations, and new institutions to safeguard their practice.
As a result, banks around the world are constantly facing a formidable challenge: how to design, implement and manage a business model that will satisfy the requirements of supervisors as well as the demands of shareholders and investors.
Improving banks’ condition has effectively been the number one priority for regulators and supervisors since the crisis. Increases in capital requirements and the introduction of liquidity requirements have made banks more resilient, so they are less likely to fail.
Therefore, regulators and supervisors have stepped up their efforts to assure that banks become resolvable so that a bank can fail without cost to taxpayers and without severe disruption to financial markets or the economy at large
Punishment for control violations will continue to increase. Fines are already up substantially, and authorities are increasingly subjecting banks to criminal charges as well as threatening to restrict activities or even revoke licenses, which leads us to the concept De-Risking.
De-risking has become common shorthand for referring to any instances in which banks have adopted increasingly stringent financial crime-related policies to reduce their exposure to potential money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption and sanctions risk. More specifically, it relates to the strategies adopted by banks to reduce their risk.
The Practice of De-risking, as an easy alternative to enhanced due diligence, is being embraced by many banks, including correspondent banks during the last two years, in an attempt to comply with the AML Guidelines set by regulators worldwide. However, the generic implementation of De-risking has deprived entire categories of customers from a wide range of financial services that are vital for their survival, and industries such as exchange companies, money transmitters, Charities, etc.
This Seminar will shed light on the numerous regulatory and supervisory challenges facing banks, especially post financial crisis, and provides an assessment of De-risking, its implementation and the impact of that on the banking and financial sectors, non-financial sector, and customers in general.
Objectives:
At the completion of this significant Seminar the attendees will have a profound knowledge of the following:
• Effective compliance program and the regulator’s focus
• Sanctions Risk Assessment and its application in Kuwait
• The effect of AML/CFT, Fraud, Tax Evasion and corruption on banks
• Proportionate and effective implementations of de-risking concept.
• How local banks have been impacted by the wholesale de-risking, imposed by correspondent banks.
• Sanctions challenges, when coupled with de-risking enforcement.
• Aligning of de-risking with the risk based approach in an AML program.
Speakers:
Mr. Ajay Badyal
Mr. Badyal heads the Assurance & Advisory Services Unit of the Compliance Function at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The unit is responsible for evaluating the Compliance Frameworks of globally-recognized financial institutions. In previous assignments, he has managed teams of specialist examiners and technical experts who supervised the US operations of complex global financial institutions. He has also managed cross-functional teams in evaluations of complex strategic projects such as the forensic examinations of troubled banks and the adequacy of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism programs. He has developed and written supervisory guidance.
Mr. Badyal has designed and presented many specialized training programs, particularly in the areas of credit risk management, capital markets trading, derivative products, internal controls, risk-focused supervision, anti-money laundering, fraud and corporate governance for both the FRBNY and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He also has extensive international experience in banking, commodity trading and shipping.
Mr. Mohamad Mansour
Senior AGM & Chief Compliance Officer at the Commercial Bank of Qatar, since 2005.
A seasoned and certified compliance professional (CAMS/CCO, started his career in the USA in the domain of finance and management with both government & private sectors. Joined the Central Bank of Lebanon in 1997 as a Senior Officer at Treasury Department, and in 2000 moved on to become a founding member of Lebanon’s Financial Information Unit – also known as “The Special investigation Commission”. During his tenor with the FIU he was assigned as a Senior Investigator and Research Analyst, where he led numerous ML&TF investigations with regional and international counterparts, as well as conducted banks’ ML & TF examination programs, and represented Lebanon in multiple FATF and Egmont Group meetings. He currently manages Commercial Bank’s Group Compliance program, and is highly engaged with regional regulators and private sector entities on AML Compliance initiatives and training programs .
Mr. Mahmoud Fadlallah
Counsel, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP / Dubai, United Arab Emirates & Washington, DC, USA.
Mr. Fadlallah is an attorney in Akin Gump’s international trade compliance and investigations practice, based primarily in Dubai. His practice focuses on advising non-U.S. entities on compliance with applicable financial sanctions and other restrictive measures, including those administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Mr. Fadlallah speaks regularly on various sanctions topics and their effect on companies and financial institutions in the Middle East, and has conducted trainings for compliance professionals and in-house legal teams on implementing effective compliance programs to mitigate sanctions-related risks. Most recently, Mr. Fadlallah has spoken at conferences and private forums on the impact of the Iran nuclear deal on the region.
Mr. Fadlallah is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A.) and the University of Minnesota Law School (J.D.). He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia bars.
Mr. Joseph Saab
Senior Manager – AML, Boubyan Bank – NBK Group (Kuwait)
Mr. Bashir El Nakib
GRC Consultant at FACT Middle East – Qatar, Managing Partner at Compliance Alert
PARTICIPATION FEES:
800 $ for UAB members
1000 $ for Non-UAB members
fees include attending the seminar, receiving the material, refreshments and a daily lunch.
SCHEDULE AND LANGUAGE:
Registration: the first day from 8am to 9 am.
Schedule: from 9:00 am to 15:00 pm daily.
Seminar language: English.
