Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism Workshop
PRESS RELEASE
African Crowdfunding Association (ACfA) and Refinitiv to organize their first compliance workshop on:
“The Fight Against Money Laundering & Financing of Terrorism in the African Crowdfunding Sector”
The African Crowdfunding Association (ACfA) announced that it will be holding a special compliance training seminar on “fighting money laundering and terrorism financing” for its members. This virtual webinar event will take place on Thursday 23 April 2020.
The seminar, titled “The Fight Against Money Laundering & Financing of Terrorism in the African Crowdfunding Sector”, is organized by the African Crowdfunding Association (ACfA) in collaboration with Refinitiv – the world’s largest provider of financial markets data and sanctions intelligence contents for AML/CFT compliance.
In a press statement, ACfA highlighted it is important that its members, which are African Crowdfunding platforms and service providers, are trained to be ready to adhere and implement FATF recommendations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing as part of their risk process related to their business activities.
The one-day seminar will focus on global compliance and regulation, the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in the alternative finance sector. The seminar will also highlight best practices, how to effectively deploy the required approach and solutions to mitigate this type of reputation risk.
Elizabeth Howard – ACfA CEO stated: “ACfA is committed to make great strides to help members to develop policies and processes in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. We are delighted to enlist the support and expertise of Refinitiv in this endeavour. This seminar will help our members navigate the challenges in deploying sound AML / CFT processes in a world where transactions and relationships are increasingly digitalized. As with all its member-only trainings, this session will encourage peer learning and sharing of experiences to quicken industry adoption.”
Tamsin Freemantle – ACfA Regulatory Policy Manager, stressed the importance of ACfA’s services to its members. “Unlike most developed markets, African countries lack a bespoke regulatory framework and licences for crowdfunding intermediaries. This is why industry associations such as ACfA are important in achieving widespread compliance of this burgeoning industry.” She added that the seminar includes exploring how new technologies could be used for KYC in an African context, and that this was crucial to reach the financial inclusion goals of crowdfunding.
Mohamed Daoud, Director of Business Development and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Expert, Refinitiv, who will deliver the seminar, stated: “In emerging markets like Africa, the Fintech/Regtech sector has often a wrong perception that FATF recommendations and Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) national regulations are only for the banking and established financial sectors.
All types of crowdfunding, even donations-based crowdfunding, fall under the FATF recommendations, and the respective AML/CFT laws and regulations.
Mohamed added that “It is critical that new digital financial services providers including peer-to-peer transfers, crowdfunding and distributed ledger-technology, start developing AML / CFT risk frameworks by clarifying and expanding existing policies to enhance the capabilities to monitor, and investigate potential financial crimes related to money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF)”.
To register for this members-only seminar, please contact us by email through tebogo@africancrowd.org
About the African Crowdfunding Association
The African Crowdfunding Association (ACfA) is an industry association for the crowdfunding industry in Africa. We operate as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) that promotes transparency and good governance in the crowdfunding industry.
Founded in 2015 by several crowdfunding platforms, ACfA has a pan-African mission to develop and foster crowdfunding as a formalised development finance tool to broaden SME access to finance. ACfA works to harmonise crowdfunding regulations across Africa through the adoption of the ACfA Label Framework, an interim regulatory framework for crowdfunding. The association also aims to provide industry data and research, facilitate policy dialogue and to drive adoption of crowdfunding across the ecosystem, from ordinary retail investors to development finance institutions.
More info: https://africancrowd.org/about/what-we-do/
About the speaker:
Mohamed Daoud is a North African French with 25 years banking & finance experience in US, Europe and Middle-East with a special focus last 18 years in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) Including Anti-Bribery and anti-Corruption programs. Mohamed is one of the main speakers for Refinitiv in this field and ran Governance, Risk and Compliance workshops, forums, seminars and conferences in more than 15 countries last 2 years.
About Refinitiv
Refinitiv is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, serving over 40,000 institutions in over 190 countries. It provides leading data and insights, trading platforms, and open data and technology platforms that connect a thriving global financial markets community – driving performance in trading, investment, wealth management, regulatory compliance, market data management, enterprise risk and fighting financial crime.
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Corporate Communications
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