2026 Speakers

Nick worked in UK law enforcement for over 30 years and led several significant operations with partner agencies around the world into organised crime threats against the UK. He has significant experience in leading complex multi-national investigations and working with public and private bodies to develop effective strategies to reduce and tackle the harm caused by organised crime activity – in particular building effective public-private partnerships and taskforce models.

In 2008, Nick was posted to the British Embassy, Washington DC. As well as leading the UK’s strategic engagement on organised crime with the US government, Nick led an extensive team of embedded UK liaison officers across the US and the Caribbean, tackling organised crime groups operating at a global level.

In March 2013, Nick was awarded the National Intelligence Medallion by the US Government, and in 2014 was awarded an OBE for “services to international law and order” by Her Majesty the Queen.

Nick joined Standard Chartered in 2016. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a member of the UK Finance Information and Intelligence Committee, represents industry on a number of UK Economic Crime reform programmes and is a board member and Vice Chair of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime

Nathalie is a Managing Director at Barclays and their OFAC Officer and Global Head of Sanctions, ABC and Anti-Tax Evasion, Financial Crime Compliance. Nathalie was previously Managing Director and Group Head of Financial Crime Compliance and Group MLRO for a global bank. In that role, Nathalie was responsible for all aspects of sanctions and the wider financial crime compliance programme and provided strategic counsel in relation to complex cross-border financial crime issues. Before joining ICBCS, Nathalie was Head of ABC and Sanctions at a Swiss headquartered bank, covering the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

Prior to working in-house, Nathalie was a white-collar criminal defence attorney for WilmerHale in Washington, DC. She also has extensive experience working for a number of international and national government employers and clients, such as the United Nations, the US House of Representatives, and the German Bundestag.

Nathalie is the former chair of the anti-corruption compliance banking industry forum, the Madison Group and has served as chair and advisor to a variety of expert groups including the International Bar Association, Criminal Law Committee, the American Bar Association, former co-chair of UK Finance’s Sanctions Panel and the current Chair of UK Finance’s Sanctions Committee.

With over 22 years of global expertise in AML and KYC compliance Pradeep Kochar is a visionary leader known for transforming complex regulations into actionable strategies. His dynamic speaking style and deep insights have made him a sought-after keynote speaker on international stages. Pradeep is a trailblazer in merging technology and human intelligence for innovative compliance solutions. He continues to drive collaboration, innovation and ethical practices in the industry. Holding ACFCS and CAMS certifications Pradeep guides us toward managing regulatory change and cross-border requirements across financial crime programmes.

Strategic leader at the intersection of financial crime, international security, and digital transformation, with nearly 20 years safeguarding global markets across banking and the blockchain-driven digital asset economy. Trusted by senior executives and regulators to turn geopolitical threats, sanctions evolution, and cyber- enabled illicit finance into decisive risk strategies. Specialist in digital asset compliance, blockchain and DLT governance, and AI-driven financial crime controls, enabling secure innovation and resilience. A recognised industry voice shaping global regulatory frameworks and technology governance, committed to responsible innovation that unites data, intelligence, and governance to protect institutional trust and stability in an era of disruption.

Arjun has two decades of advisory experience as a lawyer, consultant and compliance officer. His areas of expertise include trade, sanctions and geopolitical risk. He is currently Global Head of Sanctions and Geopolitical risk at Santander’s Corporate & Investment Bank having held roles at Shell, HSBC and Deloitte.

Jeremy has over 20 years of financial services experience. A fraud specialist currently in the role of Head of Fraud Strategy for the global retail business of HSBC with a background in payments and card transactional banking. In his role, reengineering business capabilities is a passion; challenging activities to maximise business and customer value as well as breaking down silos to create collaboration. Based in the UK Jeremy works across a range of HSBC’s markets including Hong Kong, UAE, Mexico and USA.

Andy has enjoyed a two decade plus career with L&G leading and being responsible for L&G Group’s global AML/KYC policy framework, being SMF17 for a number of L&G Group companies and as MLRO for L&G Asset Management’s Irish fund companies. In addition, he provides support to the L&G Group Financial Crime Risk Director in leading the L&G financial crime risk framework. Andy joined L&G in 2000 working in a variety of Group and Asset Management functions in 2nd line Compliance and Financial crime teams, leading to his current appointment in December 2024.  Andy previously worked in L&G Asset Management from February 2015 as Deputy MLRO. Andy graduated from University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) with a degree in Law and holds ICA International Diploma in Anti Money Laundering.

Greg is a recovering mathematician and part of the Field CTO team at Splunk, specialising in how to get value from machine learning and advanced analytics. Previously the product manager for Splunk’s AI Toolkit he helped set the strategy for machine learning in the core Splunk platform. A particular career highlight was partnering with the World Economic Forum to provide subject matter expertise on the AI Procurement in a Box project.

John provides financial crimes and anti-money laundering (AML) expertise to global clients to help them mitigate fraud and formulate robust regulatory compliance programs, policies, and processes in areas such as international sanctions and “know your customer” (KYC) obligations. He has extensive foreign and domestic investigative experience, which he uses to provide valuable insight into compliance and enforcement activities.

Throughout his financial crimes compliance career, John has:

• Led teams in the analysis of transaction monitoring alerts and the investigation of suspicious activity for high-risk financial services customers.
• Developed and assessed AML policies and procedures, including determining legal entity beneficial ownership and conducting effective sanction screening to verify customers.
• Directed global criminal financial investigations for a federal agency, resulting in the disruption and dismantling of transnational organized crime syndicates’ money laundering and other illicit financial activities.

John previously served as senior managing director of financial crimes and fraud solutions at Treliant, which was acquired by Huron in 2025. Prior to Treliant, John oversaw the financial crimes consulting practice at Kroll. Previously, he held the role of chief of global financial investigations and was a distinguished senior executive at the Department of Justice/Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Dominic Blackburn is Chief Product Officer at DeepDive.  Dom has spent the last 30 years building products at the frontier of data, pioneering global identity verification with 192business and HooYu, and developing cutting edge network link analysis tools for fraud investigation with Investigate. For nearly three years he has been focused on DeepDive — an AI-driven investigative intelligence platform that unifies fragmented data sources, performs entity resolution at scale, and surfaces truth hidden in complex networks of people, companies and events. His constant thread: making data accessible, structured, and meaningful.

Joao has over 15 years of experience in Financial Crime Compliance. Started his Financial Crime Compliance career at Barclays Bank. He then moved on to EY, where he had the opportunity to work in the development of a national AML framework under the FATF requirements, assisting both a central bank and the FIU in that development. After that, he joined Banco BPI, one of the main Portuguese banks, where he is now the Head of Financial Crime Compliance

Head of Sales at Simunix, leading commercial strategy across identity and data solutions. With over 15 years’ experience in compliance and financial technology, he brings deep expertise in AML, fraud prevention, and regulatory innovation. Prior to Simunix, Matthew was Director of Sales Analysis and Engagement at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, supporting growth across financial crime portfolios. Matthew combines sales leadership with a strong understanding of compliance challenges, helping financial institutions harness data to combat fraud and meet the needs of the evolving regulatory landscape.

Ionela Emmett serves as a Senior Manager for Financial Crime Controls, Risks, and Policy & Advisory within the Compliance function at ICBC Standard Bank. In this key leadership role, she oversees critical compliance initiatives, ensuring the bank remains aligned with global regulatory expectations while mitigating financial crime risks. Her responsibilities include designing and implementing robust anti-financial crime policies, conducting in-depth risk assessments, and providing expert guidance to senior stakeholders. Ela plays a vital role in strengthening the bank’s control frameworks, ensuring adherence to evolving financial regulations while enhancing internal safeguards against financial crime threats.

Before joining ICBC Standard Bank, Ela built a career in financial crime risk management, particularly during her tenure at Commerzbank AG London, where she led the AML Monitoring and Investigation team and served as Fraud Officer for the London Branch managing complex investigations across various business platforms.

Her extensive experience in financial crime investigations began with a decade-long tenure at Citibank NA, where she held a similar investigative role, developing expertise in fraud detection, anti-money laundering (AML), and financial crime risk management. Alongside her professional experience, she has a strong academic background, holding a Master’s degree in Criminal Studies from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, as well as multiple financial crime-related certifications, including ACAMS, ACFE, and ECCP at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Matthew Fitzgerald is a seasoned product leader with 15+ years turning complex data, AI, and decisioning capabilities into products that deliver clear business value across fraud, data enrichment, digital identity, and decision intelligence. He has led product and data strategy for global risk technology providers and high-growth SaaS companies, building cross-functional teams and portfolios spanning enrichment, prospecting, and customer data management. Today, as Director of Product, Fraud at Experian, he leads the strategy, roadmap, and delivery of market-leading fraud prevention solutions for regulated industries, turning complex risk and identity signals into clear, actionable outcomes that reduce losses, protect customers, and enable safer, more frictionless digital experiences.

John is Head of Partnerships at Resistant AI, where he builds strategic alliances and ecosystem collaboration to detect and prevent fraud and financial crime. Focused on helping financial institutions identify anomalies and hidden risk within transaction flows, he has over 15 years’ experience working with firms to reduce risk through technology and explainable AI. He’s held roles at Swift, Accuity, and Thomson Reuters.

Joe Goddard is Director of Partnerships at AVIEL Intelligence leading relationships with existing and new partners using AVIEL Intelligence to power their fraud and financial crime prevention. He previously worked at Stop Scams UK where he led cross-sector collaboration between the Financial Services, Tech and Telco sectors including data sharing and AI scam intelligence bringing together organisations like TikTok, LinkedIn, Santander, Barclays, BT & VMO2 to work collaboratively in the fight against scams.

Susie has over a decade of experience in financial crime compliance, currently serving as Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP). Susie has worked in both the financial services and gaming sectors, contributing to robust compliance frameworks, fostering regulatory adherence, and mitigating financial crime risks with expertise in AML and compliance management. Susie is dedicated to upholding ethical standards, enabling organisational integrity, and collaborating with teams to ensure operational excellence.

Luke leads Management Solutions’ Financial Crime practice across the UK and Northern Europe specialising in topics in Financial Crime and Fraud risk management. Throughout Luke’s career, he has led projects in designing and developing controls for Financial Crime, analysing processes for regulatory compliance and process efficiency, and performing business-wide risk assessments for leading banks across the UK and Europe.

Pallavi is a seasoned professional with a wealth of experience in Financial Crime across the 1LOD and 2LOD. Her expertise has been honed through her tenure in several high-street banks. Currently, she serves as a Senior Financial Crime Officer in the Financial Crime Intelligence Unit at the Bank of China. Pallavi is a Founder of the ‘Fincrime Warrior Roundtables,’ which focuses on discussing financial crime topics and their practical applications in daily roles.

Pallavi’s professional background is marked by her specialization in key areas of Financial Crime. She is an expert in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), fraud prevention/investigations, conducting bank-wide trainings and risk assessments.

Pallavi holds an ICA Diploma in AML and is a Member there. She also has an ICA Advanced Certificate in AML and is an ICA Certified Financial Crime Investigator. She regularly writes articles on financial crime topics on LinkedIn. Pallavi’s commitment to financial crime is further demonstrated through her dedication to training and educating her team and mentees, fostering a knowledge-sharing culture. She is a Speaker at various events and conferences, and she is a member of many networking groups focused on financial crime.

Despite Pallavi’s technological proficiency, she doesn’t prefer to use NFC payment methods.

Christen Kirchner, CFE has been with SAS since July 2012 and throughout her time has worked in many customer facing roles in both the consulting and pre-sales departments. She is currently managing the Northern Europe’s Fraud & Security Intelligence team consisting of domain and solution experts in this space. She is a specialist in the SAS Financial Crimes product suite addressing multiple industries including Banking, Insurances, and Supply Chain/Retail.

As a business expert Christen advises and supports on the design and implementation of automated fraud detection and Anti-Money Laundering systems. She finds joy in working with customer to balance the business requirements with the implications on technology for companies of a variety of sizes, presenting and explaining complex analytical methodologies for varying knowledge levels, and implementing and/or training various components of the product suite.

Michael has more than 15 years’ experience in financial crime compliance and is a Partner within Thistle’s exciting team of Financial Crime experts. He specialises in assurance work and s166 Skilled Person reviews, bringing a proportionate and practical approach to often complex issues.

Before joining Thistle, Michael was a Director at BDO, where he built a strong track record in leading Skilled Person reviews, as well as supporting clients with financial crime programme remediation and transformation projects. He has also held roles at Bovill, Lloyds Banking Group and Investec. Michael uses this insight to help firms strengthen their financial crime compliance frameworks and meet regulatory expectations in a way that is sensible, effective and commercially conscious.

With more than a decade of experience across software engineering, fraud prevention, and large-scale identity intelligence, Boris Lobanov is a founding engineer and Senior Solutions Architect at Fingerprint. He works closely with global financial services organizations to strengthen their fraud-detection strategies,
improve risk scoring, and build resilient identity frameworks that reduce both operational friction and losses.

Boris has served as a software engineer, technical lead, and solutions architect, advising hundreds of companies on modernizing their fraud and risk stacks. His work includes designing detection systems that identify coordinated attack patterns, automate high-risk decisioning, and surface the subtle behavioural signals traditional controls often miss.

Most recently, he guided a global digital platform through a major fraud-mitigation initiative that identified more than 70,000 fraudulent account attempts in just three months—saving significant operational costs and enabling the organization to refocus investments on verified, high-value users. His perspective blends deep technical expertise with practical, real-world insight into emerging fraud tactics and defence strategies.

Jorge is the EMEA Head of Financial Crimes Compliance Testing at MUFG, leading independent 2nd line testing across the full Financial Crime framework. With over 20 years of experience, he specialises in assessing and strengthening AML and Sanctions controls across global financial institutions. His background includes extensive work in Financial Crime Compliance controls and systems assurance, with deep expertise in evaluating FCC‑owned systems, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring solutions. Jorge is recognised for his leadership of complex, data‑driven reviews, his governance enhancements, and his ability to deliver regulatory‑aligned improvements across multi‑jurisdictional environments

Sal Melki is the Deputy Director for Illicit Finance and Public‑Private Partnerships at the NECC and NCA, leading national efforts to combat large‑scale money laundering. He has overseen major operations, including targeting Russian laundering networks and UK high‑street laundering, and helped establish collaborative initiatives such as the Public Private Crypto Forum and the UK/UAE CAMLOT partnership.

Previously, he shaped long‑term NCA strategy to enhance upstream, online and international capabilities. His earlier career spans intelligence and criminal investigations in policing, with a strong focus on counter‑terrorism, organised crime and frontline law enforcement. He is known for combining operational and strategic leadership.

Matt Neill is a Co-founder and Partner at BeyondFS, a consultancy helping financial institutions to fix, improve and transform their financial crime capabilities. BeyondFS help organisations to build high-performing financial crime programmes which satisfy regulators, work efficiently, and support their business’ ambitions. Matt started his career at Deloitte and went on to build deep expertise in complex delivery and financial crime programmes at various boutique consulting firms.

Over the past 15+ years, he has helped firms deliver critical change across their financial crime function – from re-designing KYC operating models, delivering AML regulatory changes, and delivering new technology and data foundations. Throughout this time, his work has focused on strengthening financial crime controls, their effectiveness, and on improving efficiency in the financial crime operating model. He has worked primarily with banking and payments institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Nordea, Schroders, RBS, and SWIFT.

Jason Pais is the Business Director of Financial Solutions at AVOS Tech (Prosegur), where he leads the strategy for digital transformation and regulatory compliance in the financial sector. He specializes in RegTech & Fin Crime prevention innovation, specifically overseeing AMLcheck, a leading platform dedicated to Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CFT).

​With a strong background in banking technology and commercial strategy, Jason advocates for a “hybrid” future of finance – leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to amplify human expertise and enhance security.

Heamanth is the Global Head of Data Management (Financial Crime Prevention) at SEB Bank. Previously, he served as the Regional Head of the Financial Crime Data Office at MUFG EMEA. With over two decades of experience, Heamanth specializes in program management, data management, and digitalization, focusing particularly on data in financial crime prevention. Before his tenure at SEB Bank, he worked with various global banks and insurance companies, including HSBC, MUFG, HTSC, and Talbot Insurance, in various consulting roles related to cloud, data and digitization. Additionally, Heamanth is a certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).

Andy Renshaw, is the SVP of Product Management at Feedzai and an experienced leader and SME with a lengthy history working as a practitioner and leader in the financial services industry. His areas of expertise include banking, operations analysis, credit cards, credit risk, fraud prevention, digital banking security, product management, and anti-money laundering (AML). Andy has held several leadership positions in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Feedzai, he was the senior director of Fraud and Identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Alessandra Ricciuti serves as the Head of Financial Crime Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer for AIB Group (UK) Plc, bringing over 15 years of progressive experience across the Legal and Financial Services sectors. Her career spans major global banks, as well as fintech and neo‑banks, with extensive expertise in correspondent banking and Banking‑as‑a‑Service. Alessandra has designed and led Financial Crime Frameworks across diverse business models and, more recently, within the Corporate, SME and Retail banking sectors.

Katharine heads the Financial Crime team at Danske Bank UK, where she has been leading efforts in AML and fraud prevention for the past three years. Her team is dedicated to safeguarding the bank and protecting its customers. A chartered accountant, Katharine joined Danske Bank UK in 2018 and has held various roles across HR, Finance and Operations. She also brings 21 years of experience in the FMCG sector to her role.

Donald is the Head of Financial Crime Threat Mitigation & Strategy at NatWest Group. He previously worked for the NCA as Director Prosperity (Economic Crime & Cyber Crime). He also worked at HM Revenue & Customs as Director Criminal Investigation.

Aisling has worked in Financial Crime for over a decade. In that time, she has completed KYC for customers in corporate, investment, business and retail banks across multiple products from capital markets and prepaid cards. For the past five years, she has designed controls including customer risk assessments, transaction monitoring rules and CDD processes for some of Britain’s biggest banks and building societies. She has a lot of experience delivering change programmes stemming from regulatory engagement.

Aisling holds two law degrees and before changing career to work in financial crime, she worked in aviation security and for a series of human rights charities. She has delivered human rights education for the Council of Europe in Ireland, Azerbaijan and Hungary. She is currently working on her PhD, which will examine money laundering regulation in the art market.

Clarinda is a Director at BeyondFS and a financial crime compliance specialist with more than 13 years’ experience. She primarily advises FCA-authorised Payment Institutions and EMIs, as well as firms going through the authorisation process, on complex financial crime compliance matters. Her work includes AML audits, independent reviews, banking partner reviews, s166 support, policy and procedure enhancement, training, VREQ assurance and RTGS onboarding support.

She trained at EY and later held consultancy roles at Norton Rose Fulbright and BDO before joining BeyondFS in 2025. Alongside her client work, Clarinda is a regular speaker on conference panels, podcasts and industry forums, and contributes to initiatives supporting women in the industry, including Women 4 Women and Global Gaming Women’s Lean In Circles.

A senior consultant at Mitek, Mat draws upon over two decades of experience in identity verification, fraud prevention, and data services, he provides strategic guidance to clients across diverse sectors including leading banks and building societies. Mat’s deep understanding of product technology allows him to translate complex solutions into real-world operational strategies. His expertise covers a wide range of areas, including API connectivity, risk and compliance configuration, UI customization, and effective communications.