Fraud & Financial Crime Asia 2023

Hosted by Regulation Asia

13th July - Singapore

Lead Sponsors

Co Sponsors

Associate Sponsors

Supporting Organisations

Welcome

Regulation Asia’s Fraud & Financial Crime Summit is now in its third year. This 1-day, new for 2023 multi-stream event will bring together industry experts, policymakers and technologists to provide fraud and financial crime practitioners with a comprehensive view of the evolving regulatory landscape, emerging risks and tactics used by bad actors across key digital fraud and financial crime,  as well as discussing hot topics including, money laundering, entity resolution, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, proliferation financing, tax avoidance and cybercrime.

New for 2023

Hosted in Singapore, encompassing 2 streams, with multiple breakout areas and private networking rooms, this event will be the largest gathering of financial crime compliance practitioners in the region.

Multiple Streams
The event in 2023 will expand to include a stream focused on Financial Crime and another on Fraud. Each stream will take place concurrently after the main plenary panel sessions conclude in the morning.

Breakout Roundtable Sessions
Two private rooms will be running throughout the day hosting a series of private First-Come-First-Serve roundtables made available to all attendees. Some of these will be hosted by our partner firms of the event, others by the Regulation Asia research & editorial team.

Event Sponsors

Partners

Associate Partner

Exhibitor

Speakers

Erik Grossman

Senior Compliance Officer

OFAC

Hannah Puganenthran

Head of Compliance (APAC)

Wirex

Jevgenjia Binkyte

Fraud Risk Officer (Asia-Pacific)

A.P. Moller - Maersk

Ng Kok Keong

FCC Innovation, Data Analytics & Technology

Bank of Singapore

Nadia Riberio

Regional Head of Compliance MENAP & APAC

Checkout.com

Matthew Field

APAC Market Director, AML

NICE Actimize

Tim Dalgleish

VP Global Advisory

BioCatch

Grace Then

Assistant Director – Financial Crime Practice Lead, ASEAN

Moody's Analytics

Su Kiang Lau

Executive Director - Conduct, Financial Crime & Compliance

SC Ventures

Agenda

08:15 – 09:00

Event Open & Networking 

09:00 – 09:05

Opening Remarks

09:05 – 09:20

Opening Keynote

Speaker to be announced in due course

09:20 – 10:05

Panel 1: Old Problems, New Tools: Fighting Digital Fraud and Financial Crime in the Age of Generative AI 

Even though the rising threat of digital fraud and financial crime continues to draw increased regulatory attention. Still, the rapid evolution and complex network of channels needed to drive the seamlessly integrated finance experience has created a new white space to grow for a new breed of bad actors who leverage mechanisms like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to commit digital fraud and financial fraud crime.  

From embedded finance to trade-based money laundering, increasingly using synthetic identities, money muling, forged documentation, and ransomware have become all-too-common techniques for fraudsters and organised crime groups to exploit digital channels.   

This panel will delve into emerging digital risks that banks and FIs are monitoring, the types of enforcement actions taken against these bad actors, as well as the regulatory policies to keep up with compliance and steps taken to decrease consumer risk.

Speakers to be announced in due course   

10:05 – 10:20

Post Panel Presentation 

10:20 – 11:05

Panel 2: From New Payments to Embedded Finance: New Channels, New Risks for Money Laundering? 

From digital assets to game-fi and other emerging fintech platforms with embedded finance payments, new payment methods present opportunities for bad actors to transfer value domestically or across borders.   

This panel will discuss how institutions are redefining risk and making their monitoring systems more “fit for purpose” in response to emerging risk indicators for fintech ecosystems and their payment mechanisms most frequently abused for illicit purposes.   

Nadia Riberio, Regional Head of Compliance MENAP & APAC, Checkout.com  

More speakers to be announced in due course

11:05 – 11:20

Post Panel Presentation 

11:20 – 11:40

Networking Break

Financial Crime Stream

Fraud Stream

11:40 – 12:25

Panel 1: Lessons from Europe: Balancing Privacy and Transparency in Entity Resolution

In the wake of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) prioritisation of privacy over transparency in their restriction of open public access to UBO registers, transparency and oversight of beneficial ownership and control will be obstructed. With privacy being front and centre of this ruling, data surrounding UBOs could be segregated, with bad actors leveraging this to game the system.

Is this a win for bad actors?

This panel will explore the challenges surrounding this new ruling and likely implications for Asia Pacific and what can be done by compliance teams to work around these transparency impediments to ensure they beat the shell game.

Speakers to be announced in due course   

Panel 1: “Machine Wars”: The Future Battleground of Cyber-enabled Fraud 

Spam, scams, spyware, identity theft, phishing or internet banking fraud have been the modus operandi for many digital fraudsters. The arrival of ChatGPT and other AI mechanisms can allow for more sophisticated bad actors to replicate the behaviour of consumers.   

This panel will explore recent digital fraud trends and typologies, the impact of fraud and AI usage by both Bad actors and Asia’s financial institutions in their ongoing battle for Asia’s digital wallets. 

Tim Dalgleish, VP Global Advisory, BioCatch  

More speakers to be announced in due course   

12:25 – 12:45

Fireside Chat/Presentation: Fake Flags: TBML and Vessel Identity Laundering

Open water ship-to-ship transfers, vessel identity laundering and other illicit practices are commonly cited as ways for sanctioned states and entities to bypass trade restrictions and for other bad actors to launder money. 

Coupled with trade-related mis-invoicing and documentation, can the inclusion of blockchain technology, using smart contracts and distributed ledger technology help deter vessel identity and trade-based money laundering? 

This panel will explore common red flags and typologies surrounding the use of vessels in money laundering and the data, due diligence and controls financial institutions should have in place to detect and prevent risk. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

Fireside Chat/Presentation: The Human Factor: Data Breaches and Internal Controls

Think data breaches and cybercrime doesn’t pay? The impact of Bank data breaches and other types of cyber fraud is forecast to be $10.5 trillion by 2025. But how much does it cost the criminals? Estimates show that data sold on the dark web can be acquired for as little as just a few dollars. 

Even now, institutions continue to have big steps in ring-fencing their infrastructure and building best practices to manage operational and data security risks. Still, this has done little to stem the rise of scams and frauds to highly targeted groups of customers, including high-net-worth clients. Does this mean it was an inside job? Why preventing data breaches so difficult? 

This session dissects the overlap between data breaches and insider activities to explore the influence of conduct and culture on the current operational and counterparty risk standards and the steps banks and FIs are taking to prevent scammers from leveraging on data leaks of client information.   

Speakers to be announced in due course

12:45 – 13:30

Panel 2: Overexposed: Managing Due Diligence, Third-Party and Corruption Risks in Supply Chains

Ongoing regulatory changes and supply chain uncertainties related to the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, weapons proliferation, climate change, and the modern global supply chain continue to give rise to new opportunities for corruption and bribery. 

This panel will delve into the emerging operational risk indicators, management strategies and due diligence in the supply chains, while contending the issue of state-backed corruption that give way to organised crime groups. 

Grace Then, Assistant Director – Financial Crime Practice Lead, ASEAN, Moody’s Analytics 
Jevgenjia Binkyte, Fraud Risk Officer (Asia-Pacific), Maersk

More speakers to be announced in due course

Panel 2: Fraud at Scale: Social Media’s Fraud Problem

Social media has a fraud problem, the first half of 2022 saw an increase of 40.9% in digital fraud cases in financial services in Singapore with scams done through e-mails, phone calls, and social media platforms.  

The explosion in mobile and digital channels continues to provide a new breed of bad actors with fresh opportunities to scam and defraud online and across borders. Still, if social media fraud is exploding, then who’s responsibility or liability?  

The session deep dives into the emerging red flags and typologies of scams and the cross-institutional approaches banks, FIs, telecommunications, and law enforcement agencies are taking to reduce the risks posed to consumers exposed to fraud by organised crime groups. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

13:30 – 14:15

Lunch & Networking Break

14:20 - 15:05

Panel 3: Knock-on Effects: Geopolitical Impacts for 2023 and Beyond

Although there have been strides taken in sanctioning Russia, there appears to be more geopolitical instability in the undercurrent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What then, should the sanctions responses be on a policy level to manage these flashpoints of crisis? 

This panel looks at the responses that governments, banks and financial institutions are adopting and how they can be adapted to keep up with the issues brought about by increasing geopolitical uncertainties and how institutions are assessing the impact of tomorrow’s risks, on today’s operations. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

Panel 3: Fraud and Embedded Finance: Unauthorised Activities in BNPL and Other Emerging Payment Channels

BNPL is becoming an increasingly vulnerable target for identity theft and payments fraud. Gaming, ridesharing and food delivery platforms with embedded financial services have also been making their users inherently prone to fraud and scams. What are the liabilities of financial institutions? And how can we remedy this? 

This panel explores the due diligence, vetting structures, authentication techniques and other controls that can help to address fraud and risks arising from these platforms. 

Speakers:
Su Kiang, Lau, Executive Director – Conduct, Financial Crime and Compliance, SC Ventures  
Hannah Puganenthran, Head of Compliance APAC, Wirex 

More speakers to be announced in due course

15:05 - 15:25

Fireside Chat/Presentation: The Rise of the Machines: Perpetual KYC, Risk Scoring and PEP Screening Typologies

Can machine learning be more predictive in keeping up with the risks posed by bad actors or politically exposed persons? Will the increasing reliance on AI and machine learning create new challenges? What happens when things go wrong?  

This session dissects the robustness of PEP sanctions data and its usefulness in machine learning to aid in perpetual KYC through automated behavioural analytics in onboarding and ongoing monitoring of high-risk individuals.  

Speakers to be announced in due course

Fireside Chat/Presentation: Blurred Lines: First Party Fraud and Credit Line Scams

Rightly or wrongly, first-party fraud often gets written off as bad debt, and that’s a credit risk problem and why it’s so attractive to bad actors.  

From stealing identities from public data repositories to using them to access hefty bank loans, as institutions are encouraged to open up lending to spur economic growth, a new gamut of frauds, tricks, and scams focused on first-party fraud is quickly becoming the next battle to be fought. 

 This panel session looks at the challenges that Institutions have in onboarding these customers and issues surrounding the due diligence processes on an institutional level while contending the need for quick and better loan processes when dealing with customers on a retail level. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

15:25 - 16:10

Panel 4: From Shades of Grey to Shades of Green: Redefining Risks and Validation of SoW and SoF from Medium to High-Risk Jurisdictions

Incendiary geopolitics is unsettling, but it’s also driving higher-risk customers from sanctioned nations to migrate or operate in the shadows. Working through a network of wealth managers, broker-dealers, VASPS, OTC desks and offshore banks from either unregulated or under-regulated jurisdictions. Ignoring the challenges in establishing SoW and SoF, so too is blanket de-banking, is counterproductive.  

The industry is at a turning point; this panel will explore the challenges of redefining risks to achieve the highest standards for the SoW and SoF checks and the types of risk-scoring measures that Institutions are deploying when scoring, validating and onboarding these customers.

Speakers:

Ng Kok Keong, FCC Innovation, Data Analytics & Technology, Bank of Singapore  

More speakers to be announced in due course

Panel 4: Trust but Verify: Corporate Fraud and Third-Party Due Diligence

If AI is revolutionising the way organisations detect and prevent financial fraud, then the opposite is also true. AI is revolutionising the technologies and tools used by Bad Actors. Generative AI can create fraudulent data, documentation, and credentials, making it easier for either external or internal bad actors to commit corporate fraud.  

Coupled with traditional methods of corruption and bribery, this panel dissects the typologies deployed by external and internal threats as well as professional enablers and the responsibilities of financial institutions in ensuring due diligence and mitigating counter-party risks to prevent corporate fraud and corruption. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

16:10 – 16:30

Networking Break

16:30 – 16:50 

Fireside Chat/Presentation: Follow the Money: Risk Indicators and Ransomware Financing  

The global scale of financial flows related to ransomware attacks has grown dramatically in recent years. Bad actors continue to evolve techniques increasing not only the profitability of attacks but also the likelihood of success. These include targeting large, high-value entities and ransomware as a service, where ransomware criminals sell user-friendly software kits to affiliates. The consequences of ransomware attacks can be dire, posing money laundering risks and national security threats while simultaneously damaging and disrupting critical infrastructure and services.   

This discussion aims to deepen the global understanding of the financial flows linked to ransomware and highlight good practices to address this threat by highlighting potential risk indicators that will help FI and authorities detect such financial flows. 

Speakers to be announced in due course

16:50 – 17:35 

Final Panel: From Freeze to Seize: FIU Perspectives on Remediating Cross-Border Digital Fraud and Financial Crime 

Tracing funds and identifying assets through complex money laundering schemes and corporate structures was never meant to be easy; this was by design. Asset tracing can take many forms; the common thread is information. It’s Information that is the lifeblood of investigations. 

Financial intelligence units (FIUs) depend on access to quality information to inform an effective customer identification program, conduct investigations, build intelligence capabilities and ultimately keep bad actors out of the financial system.  

Exploring the use of funds backwards, this panel explored trends FIU perspective to emerging digital risks and threats in the ongoing fight against fraud and financial crime.   

Speakers to be announced in due course

17:35 – 17:40

Closing Remarks

Registration