ACAMS 19th Annual AML & Anti-Financial Crime Conference - Virtual Las Vegas
This three-day training and networking event, September 29 - October 1, will gather high-level financial regulators, law enforcement officials and subject-matter experts to discuss the most pressing challenges facing the compliance sector today; including evolving supervisory expectations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, technical hurdles tied to risk-modeling and data integrity concerns, and emerging typologies for sanctions busting and elder-abuse fraud.
Attendees will gain the methods and tools to make their compliance programs stronger with question-and-answer sessions and panel discussions tailored to meet their needs. As part of its effort to bring the compliance community together, ACAMS will also host a session offering guidance on how to best leverage new industry contacts for the good of attendees’ institutions and professional careers.
On September 30, CRB Monitor's founder and CEO, Steve Kemmerling will be part of the virtual platform on a panel discussion hosted by Refinitiv, one of the conference's sponsors. The knowledge session will be a blunt talk about managing AML/KYC compliance where key experts from across the industry will discuss how Marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) pose risk and opportunity for financial institutions.
The knowledge session will begin at 3:30 p.m. EST. Register for the event here.
Key Experts
Steve Kemmerling, Founder & CEO CRB Monitor
Since founding CRB Monitor in 2014, Steven Kemmerling has been a thought leader, subject matter expert and data-hound focused on addressing significant challenges around “cannabis and banking.” He created and continues to refine many of the terms, taxonomy and frameworks relied upon by financial institutions and regulators as they seek to understand the cannabis industry and formulate relevant and effective policies, procedures and standards. Prior entrepreneurial experience includes helping to launch and grow a litigation and anti-money laundering consultancy serving large financial institutions. Steve strives to utilize his experience, knowledge, and entrepreneurial insight to develop innovative products and services that provide meaningful solutions to large problems.
Holly Sais Phillippi, Head of Risk Proposition Sales, Americas Refinitiv
Holly Sais Phillippi has over 20 years' experience in data/regulatory compliance and risk management. Holly is focused on building strong customer and third-party risk communities within the corporate environment, regulatory and financial communities to ensure Refinitiv is putting the clients’ focuses first in product build and design. She is also responsible for strategic project planning, building an education strategy around customer and third-party risk and assisting clients with large-scale rollout & adoption projects around customer and third-party risk solutions.
She has personally managed several top banks around the globe and engaged directly with their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance teams and the heads of AML compliance. Holly’s focus has always been to ensure clients have the data and systems necessary to meet their regulatory guidelines as well as corporate responsibility expectations.
Sundie Seefried, CEO & Partner Colorado Credit Union
Sundie Seefried is presently the CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union & Safe Harbor Services, LLC, located in Denver Colorado. She has served in the Credit Union industry since 1983 and as CEO since 2001. She holds a Bachelors in Business Management from the University of Maryland and an MBA in Finance from Regis University.
Instead of heading into retirement at the end of 2014, she designed a full scope Cannabis Banking Program known as the Safe Harbor program which has withstood the scrutiny of 15 Federal and State exams to date. The credit union now banks in excess of $200 million per month of cannabis related funds while creating the subsidiary Safe Harbor Services to aid other Financial Institutions implement the Safe Harbor program.
She regularly provides cannabis banking education to legislators, regulators, attorney’s generals, state officials and financial institutions and has established herself as an expert on the topic; having her program featured in the NY Times Magazine, January 2018. She is on a mission to normalize banking for the cannabis industry while assisting law enforcement and federal agencies be more effective at combating illicit activities and protecting the financial system.
To share her knowledge, she authored the book ‘Navigating Safe Harbor – Cannabis Banking in Uncertain Times’ in 2016, as well as contributing an entire chapter on cannabis banking in the newly released university textbook, The Politics of Marijuana: A New Paradigm, by Timothy McGettigan; both available on Amazon.
Jim Richards, Founder RegTech Consulting, LLC
Jim Richards is the principal and founder of RegTech Consulting LLC, focused on providing strategic advice on all aspects of financial crimes risk management to AML software providers, financial technology start-ups, cannabis-related businesses, mid-size banks, and money services businesses. From 2005 through April 2018 Mr. Richards served as the BSA Officer and Director of Global Financial Crimes Risk Management for Wells Fargo & Co., where he was responsible for BSA, AML, counter-terrorist financing (CTF), external fraud, internal fraud and misconduct, the identity theft prevention program, global sanctions, financial crimes analytics, and high-risk customer due diligence.
Prior to his role with Wells Fargo, Mr. Richards was the AML operations executive at Bank of America. There, he was responsible for the operational aspects of Bank of America’s global AML and CTF monitoring, surveillance, investigations, and related SAR reporting.
Prior to his 20-year career in banking, Mr. Richards was a prosecutor in Massachusetts, a barrister in Ontario, Canada, and a Special Constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He is the author of “Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering.” Mr. Richards has a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Comm.) degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of British Columbia.
