Gathering leaders from the financial services from across MENA in Dubai to discuss financial crime prevention, fraudulent activity, and role of technology to enhance efficiency, improve customer service, and protect your business.
Sofitel Downtown Dubai – Sheikh Zayed Rd –
Downtown Dubai – Dubai – United Arab Emirates.
For any further questions regarding our Event, please feel free to contact Reina directly on the below details.
Reina Villanueva
Email: reina.villanueva@transformative.media
Tel: +447496088010
Delegate Registration opens at 8:00 am and we’re kicking off the agenda content with the Chair’s opening remarks at 09:00am.
We’ve set aside plenty of time for networking breaks throughout the day including complimentary refreshments and lunch is provided.
The content agenda will wrap up at 04:15pm, followed by drinks reception.
Transform Finance MENA in Dubai brings you 3 topics under one roof focussing on AML, KYC, Fraud & Cyber, for a content-centred day, invigorating discussion with excellent networking opportunities alongside a select group of leading technology suppliers.
Changing customer expectation, innovative technology and cyber security fears are disrupting commercial banking and the financial services landscape. The banking sector must adapt and evolve faster than ever before. Next generation technologies and systems are fighting criminal activities, but the threats and risks continue to rise. Meanwhile, regulators are implementing stricter controls that institutions must follow whilst navigating market changes.
To stay on top, there is a need for financial institutions to be flexible and innovative, while constantly evaluating consumer risk.
C-suite, VP, Directors, and head of department will be sharing their perspectives on core subject-areas on of our three agendas, to discuss, collaborate, and share best practices among peers.
Connect with over 200+ senior executives in AML, Fraud and Technology, across the entire banking and financial services sectors in the MENA region and stay ahead of the curve with the latest developments in an exclusive and engaging in-person environment.
200+ Financial Executives | 20+ Industry Speakers | 1 days of top-quality discussion content
A professional Compliance Officer working for 30+ years in the banking and non-banking financial services industry. He holds a banking degree (Chartered Banker Institute – UK), and an MBA from the University of Liverpool; he is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS) from ACAMS®. He practices Regulatory Compliance and AML/CFT for 17 years, specializing in Sanctions, Trade-Based Money Laundering, Advanced Analytics and Forensics, and RegTech/FinTech. He started his career from Banking Operations and moved into training and development within the banking sector until 2005; for 15+ years he also worked as a part-time adjunct lecturer for the Chartered Bankers Institute, other Professional Training Academies, and different Universities and Colleges in Europe. He became a Group Compliance Project Manager for the bank in 2005 implementing policies, procedures, systems, and controls and he had different management positions within the Group Compliance Division of the bank. Since 2013, he works as the Chief Compliance Officer for Lulu Financial Group offering money remittance and foreign currency exchange products in multiple countries within GCC and APAC regions. He is a member of the Task Force for ACAMS® for exam writing, conferences, and subject matter experts’ panels; he is also serving as a member of panels for many different conferences organized by the Compliance Community worldwide. He is an active member of the Private Public Partnership Sub-Committee of the National AML/CFT Executive Council of the United Arab Emirates.
Gabrielle joined the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in February 2021. As Head of Ecosystem Development in the Financial Technology department, she drives the relationship between financial institutions, venture capital firms and fintech startups, along with contributing to the FSRA’s fintech strategy. Her expertise includes the implementation of new technologies and business models within financial institutions.
Prior to ADGM, Gabrielle oversaw venture capital firm, Plug And Play’s fintech activities in EMEA, driving seed stage investments in European and MENA based startups, executed on the open innovation process at Citi, and built financial models at Bloomberg.
Gabrielle is a frequent speaker at leading conferences (e.g. Financial Times Live, Money2020, Finovate), has authored a number of whitepapers, articles and research papers on innovation in the financial industry (e.g. Forbes ME) and was featured in Innovate Finance’s Women In Fintech Powerlist in 2017, 2018, 2019 and Lattice80’s 100 Women in Fintech in 2018 & 2019. Gabrielle is an economist by training and holds an MPhil in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge.
Jasim Khawaja is a senior Risk and Control practitioner with a number of professional qualifications and a wide-ranging experience of auditing risks including Credit, Financial Crime, Fraud, Cyber-security, etc. in multifaceted organisations. Prior to his current role with United Arab Bank as portfolio head of audit for Corporates and Credit Risk, Jasim has lead internal audit assignments across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Americas and the UK. He has a great acumen of aligning different risks and to assess the overlap which in his view exists almost everywhere. Jasim loves to drive to places, is a big cricket fan and likes to avail opportunities to share his knowledge and perspective with public at large.
Khushboo is a seasoned compliance, risk and financial crime professional with 20 years of experience in banking in the UAE. She is a fellow of the International Compliance Association.
Prior to ANZ, she has worked with FirstRand and Standard Chartered Bank. Khushboo believes in building a values-driven culture that encourages an understanding of the spirit of Compliance.
She is passionate about breaking biases, and supports unconventional and out-of-the-box thinking.
Wael Saikaly is presently the Head of AML/CFT at Creditbank SAL, one of the Alpha Lebanese banks. Wael enjoys over 18 years of banking experience focusing on the areas of Audit, AML, and Compliance. Wael reorganized and restructured two AML/CFT departments in two different banks, and was successful in creating a more flexible and efficient AML/CFT system while working closely with the branches in order to protect the bank from being exploited for money laundering or terrorist financing activities.
In his present position, Wael is handling several responsibilities covering: (1) Researching and understanding changes in local and international AML/CFT regulations. (2) Developing Anti Money Laundering and Compliance guidance materials, (3) Supervising and updating the Risk Based Approach (RBA) Criteria to acknowledge local and international requirements, (4) Overseeing the good application of AML/CFT daily controls and procedures.
Wael enjoys a vast experience in banking operations due to his both Commercial and Internal Control background that broadened his exposure to day-to-day operations. Wael is also responsible for developing and delivering training programs on AML/CFT topics and FATCA/CRS requirements.
Wael is currently pursuing is Executive MBA degree at the Lebanese American University, he graduated from the Lebanese University in Beirut, holding a B.S. in Accounting and a B.S. in Marketing and Management. Wael is a Certified Anti Money Laundry Specialist since 2014. Wael earned the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) in 2020.
Jonathan Somers is the Middle East & Africa Regional Sales Director for NetGuardians, a Swiss fintech providing advanced AI solutions that help protect over 80 banks around the world from sophisticated frauds that target their customers and their accounts.
He has lived and worked in MEA for over 25 years, advising banks and software vendors on strategies to ensure that they successfully meet their customers’ evolving needs.
Jonathan is recognized in the banking industry for promoting innovation and helping financial organizations to benefit from new technologies. He has an avid interest in how explainable artificial intelligence and big data solutions can be combined to prevent cybercrime without increasing customer friction.
Kevin is Director, Financial Crime Strategy at Fenergo. He joined Fenergo in 2021 and is currently leading initiatives in Perpetual KYC and Continuous Risk Monitoring – helping Fenergo’s clients satisfy their regulatory obligations efficiently with cloud-based compliance solutions. He has worked in Regulatory Compliance since 2005. He was previously VP of Product Management at Corlytics, a Regtech providing horizon scanning and regulatory change management solutions. Prior to Corlytics, Kevin was VP of Product Management at BAE Systems NetReveal. Over a twelve-year tenure, he held a variety of roles bringing new Anti-Money Laundering and Fraud Management solutions to market serving financial services clients globally.
Anjali is a lawyer and a certified compliance specialist who has experience working with multinational companies and FinTech startups by providing advisory services and training to ensure a culture of compliance. She is passionate about anti-money laundering and the intersection of regulations with technology (RegTech). Apart from this, Anjali runs her own blog called ComplyStreet, which discusses the latest developments in the world of regulatory compliance, AML and data protection. She attends and regularly speaks about her areas of expertise at events such as SBC digital payments, GRC World Forums and Women in Governance, Risk and Compliance. She also has served as a panellist, sharing her thoughts about personal and career development.
Sailendra is currently the Head- Sanctions Risk Analysis & Controls for Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), UAE. He has over 20 years of professional experience spanning across financial and non-financial sectors. Over the years he has been involved in advising a wide range of clients on various facets of Financial Crime risk and in his currently role he is managing Sanctions risk for the Africa and Middle East region for SCB.
He holds an engineering degree from National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India, and a Masters in Security and Diplomacy (International Relations) from the Tel Aviv University, Israel. He is a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS) and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) from ACAMS. He is member of the CGSS examination design team for ACAMS.
Currently working as the Director, Group Integrated Intelligence and Investigations (i3) in the FCC unit, Ajay manages complex financial crime investigative projects and thematic reviews for Standard Chartered Bank. Typically these projects pertain to various FCC verticals like Anti Money Laundering, Sanctions, Anti Bribery and Corruption, Illicit Wildlife Trafficking, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking etc. Ajay has 14 years of experience in FCC and 18 years of banking experience. When Ajay is not fighting financial crime, he enjoys reading, playing cricket with his son and playing badminton.
For over 17 years, Lyndon has been educating hundreds of thousands of Filipinos to be “financially smart” and helping many Filipinos to have a prosperous life. He has been invited to speak in several programs of the government and private MNCs to discuss investments, financial literacy and business strategy.
In 2020, the Illustrado Magazine has recognized Lyndon as one of the “Most Influential Filipinos in the Gulf” and featured as an ‘Education Advocate’. Lyndon is an international speaker for several international conferences and seminars in the USA, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Philippines, on the topics related to Business Strategy, Stock Market, Banking Risk Management, Internal Controls and Global Leadership.
He is a former Advisor to central banks, global banks and regional banks in the Middle East. He also authored a powerful investment book called: PISO Master — and he continuously educating thousands of Global Filipinos in terms of Leadership, Business, Finance, Investment and Financial Literacy.
In 2017, he was a key instrumental and one the Philippine Delegates Team for the Foreign Direct Investments and he presented the Philippine projects to potential investors.
Lyndon completed the Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business Corporate Learning. He is also a recipient of the prestigious ‘Global Professional Scholarship’ for the Global Executive Master of Business Administration at Hult International Business School, based in Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. In his Executive MBA program, Lyndon received a Recognition for Academic Achievement as one of the top-notchers in the Global Executive MBA program.
He has been providing advisory services to global and publicly listed companies for over 17 years and served as a faculty member at the De La Salle University Manila and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
He also worked in two global consulting firm: Deloitte and KPMG. Lyndon is a Certified Public Accountant (US-CPA), Certified Public Accountant (Philippine-CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (US-CIA), Certified Risk Management Assurance (US-CRMA) and Certified Financial Services Auditor (US-CFSA).
Shruti is Head of Compliance and MLRO at Mamo, a FinTech company based in the UAE. She has 10 years’ experience in financial services including compliance roles within payment services, consumer credit and peer-to-peer lending and also gained regulatory expertise having worked at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
Shruti holds a LLB Law (Hons) degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has obtained a number of qualifications including the International Compliance Association (ICA) Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance as well as specialist certificates in Financial Crime Risk in Mobile Financial Services and Conduct Risk.
With a strong passion for the prevention of financial crime, Shruti has served as a speaker and panelist at events including the AML & ABC Forum. She believes in fostering a strong ethics and compliance culture within an organisation whilst redefining the role of compliance to actively support innovation and creativity. Acting as a mentor, she encourages conversations around career fulfilment, women in leadership positions and diversity in the workplace.
Financial Crime Prevention: The Risks and Opportunities
Fraud & Cyber Security: Prevention & Detection Solutions
Emerging Technologies: The Adoption of Analytics & Increased Use of AI, ML, Biometrics, Automation, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
Public-Private Partnerships: The importance of international cooperation & information sharing beyond the big banks
KYC Innovation: Digital Onboarding & Developments
Growing FinTech Ecosystem: The Rising Role of Fintech's & Digital Payments
Risk Management: FinCrime and compliance risks for designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs)
Transaction monitoring: Developments & Innovations
Regulations: The evolving Risks in RegTech, AML & FinCrime & The UAE Authorities' efforts to prevent AML
More than 200+ C-suite, VP and Director level executives from across the Financial Services in the MENA region including banking, fintech’s, NFPPs, MSBs, traders, industry and government bodies representing a diverse group of innovators in Compliance, Risk, Transformation, AML, Payments, Transaction Monitoring, Digital, Innovation, Security, Quantum, Fraud, KYC, Financial Crime, Cyber, Security, AI, Automation, Analysts, Anti Money Laundering Officers, Anti-bribery, Anti-corruption, Data and Technology.
Hear from 20+ financial services industry focused speakers
Physical network with 200+ attendees in Dubai
Engage in top-quality discussion content
Select 1-2-1 meetings with the latest financial service innovators
Book meeting rooms to network and connect with the community
Get a fresh perspective from MENA industry innovators
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Colin has recently joined BNY Mellon as Regulatory Product Manager. He is responsible for ensuring that all products within Asset Servicing are compliant with upcoming regulations and serve our client’s needs to meet the regulatory requirements, including MIFID II, GDPR, MMFR.
He represents the company on a number of RegTech Award panels and industry Event Advisory Boards, and helps to co-ordinate the BNY Mellon Tax & Regulatory Client Forum. This industry-leading event includes a number of RegTech panels and the creation of a regular BNY Mellon RegTech Forum.
Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Colin spent 4 years working at Barclays as Industry & Regulatory Engagement Lead for Data Management, working with RegTech and vendor solution providers to assess solutions to meet the upcoming Regulatory challenges. Previously, he was Global Product Manager for Omgeo CTM responsible for developing the product to meet all client and regulatory requirements. He has also spent time at a number of leading Investment Bank institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Nomura, and Goldman Sachs, across a broad range of Data Management, Client Service and project management roles.
Sam is a financial crime prevention professional with over 15 years of practical experience in compliance. Sam holds a number of qualifications and is recognised as a subject matter expert in the field of financial crime.
Sam’s previous work experience includes working as MLRO, Data Protection Officer and CCO and Group Head of AML for various financial institutions, both offshore and in Europe. Sam also worked offshore for several years as the first legal counsel to the financial regulator in Guernsey and subsequently set up the financial crime division, overseeing the examination of a variety of financial institutions. She continues to maintain ongoing engagement with other regulators on financial crime matters.
Sam has extensive training experience in the field of financial crime prevention and corporate governance matters. She has most recently been involved in projects related to FenTech businesses, the use of RegTech to mitigate financial crime and list management relating to the screening of customers and third parties. Sam most recently worked with ACAMS Europe as its AML Director. Sam is recognised by ACAMS as a subject matter expert in sanctions and has co-authored a number of online certificate courses, facilitated working groups on 4/5AMLD in Europe and assistance in the development of white papers. Originally from Montreal, Quebec Canada, Sam holds a Bachelors of Public Administration, Law Degree, qualified as a barrister and solicitor and holds her Masters in Business, specialising in risk management.
Adriana specialises in financial regulatory policy issues covering all Digital and Innovation topics, PSD2, Cyber-Security, Operational Resilience, Data protection, Tax and issues affecting fixed income including securitisation, margin and shadow banking reforms. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Ms. Ennab was a Repo trader and Global Product Manager for Merrill Lynch, Tradition Government Securities and Goldman Sachs in Asia, London and New York. Additionally, she ran various private ventures in Asia and London.
Ms. Ennab holds a BS in Management and Marketing and Finance from New York University and an MBA from Fordham School of Business Management.
Adriana is on the Women in Fintech Powerlist 2018 and shortlisted for the Policy Makers and Regulatory Experts group.
Janthana is the CEO and Founder of Tapoly, the first on-demand insurance platform for the gig economy in Europe, and winner of Insurance Provider of the Year at the British Small Business Awards 2018. She is listed by Forbes as number 6 of the Top 100 Women Founders to watch, and is among the Top Ten Insurtech Female Influencers according to The Insurance Institute. Janthana is a chartered accountant and former internal audit director at top-tier investment banks.
As the Head of Fund Reporting and Regulatory Change, Deon is responsible for reporting fund data to clients, and for building client solutions around European and UK regulatory developments.
Deon believes that asset managers need to focus on cleaning their data and making it available to clients online. Clients want to see the underlying data that drives everything asset managers create for them – and providing this in a transparent and timely way, especially in the regulatory space, will be a winning strategy for any firm. He is also no 3 on the 2019 Empower Yahoo Finance ethnic minority future leaders list. Deon is chair of the LGBT+ Allies network which represents and brings together their LGBT community and allies.
Marie Lundberg is the founder and CEO of Acronym Consulting AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a financial crime specialist with more than two decades of experience within the financial sector, including investment firms, large internet banks, payment service providers, traditional and private banking. Her area of expertise includes anti-bribery and corruption, fraud, anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, sanctions and counter terrorism financing.
Marie is a firm believer of using analytics and the importance of knowing and understanding your data, as well as your customers. Awareness, a solid risk management program and education is in her opinion a few of the keys to combat financial crime.
She has extensive international experience, working mainly in the Nordics and Europe including the UK. She is a founding member and co-chair of the ACAMS Nordics Chapter and a Certified Fraud Examiner by ACFE as well as a public speaker and thought leader in this area.
Jacqui is an international web scientist recognised as one of the 100 most powerful UK entrepreneurs and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in recognition of her international futurist work.
She is recognised as one of the Top Ten global IoT innovators and an independent industry analyst for the Internet of Things (IoT). She is one of 4 IoT leaders advising the European Commission on their citizen strategy in an IoT enabled Europe.
She is personally recognised as one of the UK’s most influential Women in Tech, one of the 34 IoT Influencers on Twitter, one of the 20 global entrepreneurs to watch, and a UK Smart City Leader. She was shortlisted for a Cyber Security industry award based on her European work and was invited to a speak in Davos on the future of the Cyber Security Industry.
She is globally recognised as a Smart City Tzar, smart cities are the future hubs of democracy in an IoT world. She is a Strategic Advisor to the UK Government on Smart Cities, Cities lead on Digital Built Britain and a Principal UK Expert lead for the British Standards Institute (BSI) international team for Smart Cities and AI.
She is one of the International Smart City experts advising the Chinese Government on their Smart City Programme.