A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT
A COMMUNITY CONVENES — AGAIN
We are publishing this issue of ACAMS Today in conjunction with our biggest assembly , taking place October 2-4 , in Las Vegas . So , if you are reading this in Las Vegas , welcome !
If this is your first ACAMS Assembly , I hope the opportunity to engage with more than 2,000 dedicated anti-financial crime ( AFC ) professionals is as energizing and enlightening for you as it is for me when I attend ACAMS events throughout the year .
Our subjects are always topical and evolving , even those that are recurring . Assemblies held in the first half of the year — Tallinn in March , Hollywood , FL , and Dublin in May and Austin in June — have reflected our commitment to bringing insights into legal and regulatory issues in each jurisdiction .
Beneficial ownership remains a global concern and a headlining topic at our events , not least as multiple jurisdictions create registries and navigate cross-border sharing of the resultant data . And , of course , there are universal questions regardless of jurisdiction : Who will be required to file ownership information , who will be responsible for its accuracy , and who will have access to it ?
In the U . S ., obstacles to creating a national ownership database mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act ( CTA ), and questions about how it should function , remain vital to our members . As I write , the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( FinCEN ) has announced its intent to delay the reporting requirement for entities formed after January 1 , 2024 . 1
You can expect the U . S . regulatory scheme for the CTA to be addressed on Day 1 in Vegas when FinCEN and the other banking agencies take the stage , and , as notably , on Day 2 in the keynote and Q & A featuring newly appointed FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki .
The aftereffects of the failure of several cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin “ minters ,” as well as the legitimacy of crypto-assets was a topic of lively debate in Dublin , and will also resonate in Las Vegas ; particularly since bank closures linked to the failure of FTX and others were a U . S . phenomenon .
The collapses of Silicon Valley Bank ( SVB ), Signature and First Republic have already received initial attention from the Hollywood regulatory panel in March .
By way of background on digital currency , find “ A look at the latest crypto criminal cases ” in this issue on page 26 .
Artificial intelligence ( AI ) has gotten “ real ” again — witness The Assembly Europe in Dublin in May and The Fintech and Crypto Summit in Austin in June — and you can expect it to be a theme in Vegas , including a panel on how AI can be used to combat human trafficking .
At ACAMS ’ Dublin assembly , we heard regulators from the Netherlands and France urge institutions to adopt AI . Their enthusiasm for its benefits was coupled with warnings that institutions must master their AI usage , including the capacity to explain how decisions are made and ensuring that human reviewers are in place to parse results . 2
For further thoughts about AI , see “ Exploring the role of generative AI in enhancing financial crime compliance ” on page 90 .
Sanctions compliance remains one of the great commitments of the AFC community and will be among the topics addressed by the opening speaker , Department of the Treasury Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Rosenberg . In addition to sharing the Department of the Treasury ’ s position
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