IA Financial Crime Forum 2025

Group discount: use the promotional code GROUP for 20% discount on bookings of five or more people.

The Investment Association is pleased to invite you to the annual IA Financial Crime Forum 2025, taking place on Thursday, 06 February, kindly hosted by Deloitte and in collaboration with Headline Principal Sponsor, Dow Jones. 

Financial crime is more complex, multifaceted, and globalised an issue than ever, which continues to grow in sophistication. Despite the continuing work of numerous initiatives by UK businesses, law enforcement, and the Government to bridge the public/private divide and facilitate information sharing, firms face growing demands on their resources and heightened expectations for participation.

The IA and the industry recognise the critical importance of addressing financial crime, particularly online. We remain committed to supporting the sector and policymakers as they tackle the significant opportunities and challenges ahead.

This Forum offers a valuable opportunity to learn from practitioners, industry experts, regulators and legislators about the latest developments in countering financial crime, including in areas such as:

• Anti-money laundering
• Fraud
• Sanctions
• The new corporate offence of failing to prevent fraud
• Sharing data and intelligence to counter the efforts of criminals
• The potential impact of AI

Join us for this timely and informative event, and ensure you are part of the conversation!

12:30 Registration, Refreshments and Networking

13:00 Welcome remarks

Andrew Ninian, Director of Stewardship, Risk and Tax, The Investment Association

13:10 Opening Remarks from the Financial Crime Committee Chair

John Clarke, MLRO and Head of FC, Fidelity International

13:30 The View from Whitehall

The Rt Hon. Lord Hanson, Minister of State, Home Office

13:45 Panel: The New Corporate Criminal Offence of Failing to Prevent Fraud

Moderator: Adrian Hood, Regulatory & Financial Crime Expert, The Investment Association

• Dr Penny Dunbabin, Fraud Policy Unit, Home Office
• James Barnard, Senior Counsel (Financial Services and Markets), Travers Smith LLP
• Jules Colborne-Baber, Head of Forensic, Deloitte
• Jason Holt, Global Head Financial Crimes Compliance, M&G Investments

14:30 Sanctions Masterclass: The different shades of risk and exposure on Financial Instruments

• Vera Akiotu, Director - EMEA Financial Crime Proposition, Dow Jones
• Jeff Teahan, Sanctions Product Specialist, BIGTXN

14:45 Networking Break

15:15 Panel: The New Sanctions World Order

Moderator: Mark Croxon, Co-Founder, Reifi

• Haider Mannan, CEO & Founder, BIGTXN
• Gem Conn, Vice President, Content Strategy and Quality for Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones
• Magdalena Kurylowicz, Vice President - Anti-Financial Crime (EMEA), PIMCO

16:00 FCA Keynote speech

Kate Tuckley, Head of Department - Consumer Investments, FCA

16:30 Panel: AI and Financial Crime

Moderator: James King, Senior Policy Adviser, The Investment Association 

• Andy Richardson, National Protect Coordinator – Fraud, Economic and Cyber Crime, City of London
• Robin Bylenga, Digital Strategy & AI Security Lead, DWS Group Services UK Limited
• Lisa Lee Lewis, Partner, Addleshaw Goddard
• John Greene, Executive Director, Howden

17:15 Closing Remarks

Adrian Hood, Regulatory & Financial Crime Expert, The Investment Association

17:20 Networking Drinks Reception

Andrew Ninian, Director of Stewardship, Risk and Tax, The Investment Association
Andrew is responsible for representing The Investment Association members interests as institutional investors on stewardship and corporate governance matters. Andrew also has executive team responsibility for the IA’s Risk and Tax Unit focussing on business risks affecting member firms.

Andrew is responsible for working with members to set the IA guidelines for investee companies and has oversight of The IA's voting research service IVIS, including company consultation and engagement. Andrew also oversees the IA’s work on helping to improve member practices on stewardship and policy development on stewardship and corporate governance matters. Andrew joined The Investment Association in June 2014, through merger of the Investment Affairs division of the ABI with the IMA. Andrew read Economics at the University of Bath.

Andrew is a member of the FTSE Russell Policy Advisory Board and the Advisory Panel to the FTSE Women Leaders Review.

John Clarke, UK MLRO and Head of Financial Crime Compliance at Fidelity International
John is the MLRO and Head of Financial Crime Compliance for Fidelity International’s regulated entities in the UK. In addition to his work with Fidelity, John is also the current Chairperson for the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group Editorial Panel representing the Investment Association on the same. John also currently chairs the Investment Association Financial Crime Committee.

Adrian Hood, Regulatory & Financial Crime Expert, The Investment Association
Adrian Hood has been Regulatory Advisor at The IA, the trade association of the UK’s investment management industry, since 2006. He is also a Director on the JMLSG Board. His responsibilities include financial crime as well as market abuse, wholesale issues, FCA regulation, short selling regulation, operational risk, benchmark regulation, MiFID II and MAD II.

Prior to joining the IA he has worked both in asset management compliance and with IMRO and the FSA.

The Rt Hon. Lord Hanson, Minister of State, Home Office
He has previously served as the MP for Delyn from 1992 to 2019. He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1997 and became Assistant Government Whip in 1998. Following the 2001 general election he became the PPS to Prime Minister Tony Blair. He was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice from May 2007 until June 2009. On 21 February 2007 he was appointed to the Privy Council. He was also Minister of State for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing at the Home Office from 8 June 2009 until the 2010 general election. He was knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for political service.

Dr Penny Dunbabin, Fraud Policy Unit, Home Office
Penny began her career in wind energy analysis and development in the UK and France. She then transitioned to Defra, focusing on household energy efficiency policies, particularly the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target. Penny also commissioned and managed large-scale research projects on renewable heating and energy efficiency and contributed to the technical aspects of the Renewable Heat Incentive.

She later moved into nuclear decommissioning policy, collaborating with regulators and other stakeholders on decommissioning-related elements of the Energy Act 2023. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Penny undertook a placement with the Companies House team at the (then) Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, where she analyzed responses to a consultation on the Registrar’s powers. She also supported the team in scheduling their secondary regulation program for the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.

Since September 2023, Penny has been working for the Fraud Policy Unit in the Home Office, preparing guidance for the new offence of failure to prevent fraud and leading the development of policy aimed at countering fraud against businesses.

James Barnard, Senior Counsel (Financial Services and Markets), Travers Smith LLP
James is a senior counsel in the Travers Smith Financial Services and Markets Department.

James advises clients on a broad range of financial services regulatory matters, with a particular focus on the asset management sector.

James' practice includes advising clients on various legal, regulatory and practical matters arising from the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), the regulatory perimeter, FCA change in control requirements, anti-money laundering compliance (MLD4 and MLD5) and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR).

James also advises clients on the impact of, and in preparation for, regulatory changes affecting their business and products, and has advised clients on their projects in respect of Brexit, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the Taxonomy Regulation, the UK Investment Firm Prudential Regime (IFPR) and the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) failure to prevent fraud offence.
Jules Colborne-Baber, Head of Forensic, Deloitte

Jules Colborne-Baber is Head of Investigations in Deloitte’s Risk, Regulatory & Forensic practice.
Jules specialises in conducting economic crime and misconduct investigations and economic crime and misconduct advisory services.

Jules has led and advised on a number of cases involving corruption, sanctions, fraud, accounting irregularities and other misconduct. Jules is experienced in dealing with retained counsel, client management, other third parties and prosecutors and regulators. Jules’ particular focus and expertise is in the financial services sector but he has also lead numerous investigations and projects in the oil and gas, automotive, and technology sectors. Jules qualified as a chartered accountant in the financial services practice of Arthur Andersen in 2001.

Jason Holt, Global Head Financial Crimes Compliance, M&G Investments
Jason has over 25 years of experience combatting financial crime, serving in senior leadership roles at some of the world's most prestigious and complex financial institutions. His notable positions include; Global Head of AFC at abrdn, EMEA Regional AFC Head at JP Morgan, International Head of AFC at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Global Head of AML at Barclays.

In these roles, Jason has spearheaded numerous significant financial crime transformation programs and conducted large-scale investigations addressing critical risks such as bribery and corruption, fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering.

Apart from his in-house roles, Jason has also contributed his expertise in consulting. As the regional lead at Exiger, a specialist advisory and technology firm in financial crime and supply chain management, he worked with global clients across diverse sectors, including technology, oil and gas, financial institutions, pharmaceuticals, governments, aerospace, luxury goods manufacturers, and supermarkets. This role was often focussed on helping clients leverage technological solutions to manage financial crime risks more efficiently and effectively.

Jeff Teahan, Sanctions Product Specialist, BIGTXN
Jeff Teahan is a product specialist at securities data processor and provider firm BIGTXN. He previously served as a subject matter expert at Bloomberg on sanctions, corporate hierarchies and capital structure. He has worked as a proxy voting analyst at Glass, Lewis & Co advising shareholders on corporate governance and as a legal analyst with Compliance & Risks. With an academic background in Law and Russian Politics, Jeff’s focus area is sanctioned financial instruments. He develops bespoke screening and risk management solutions for financial services firms.

Vera Akiotu, Director - EMEA Financial Crime Proposition, Dow Jones
As Director of Financial Crime Compliance Proposition, Vera is responsible for developing and executing strategies with the bank and non-bank financial institutions in Europe. Most recently Vera spent 10 years at Dow Jones as a senior sales executive, working with large financial institutions on their financial crime needs. Specialising in both the operational landscape and the regulatory landscape around AML/KYC and transaction screening.

Haider Mannan, CEO & Founder, BIGTXN
Haider is the CEO of the securities data processor and provider firm BIGTXN, and has over 20 years of experience in data management, and risk and compliance data, across the securities markets globally. He is a data scientist and subject matter expert in traditional and digital assets, specialising in global sanctions and investment monitoring solutions. Haider is a member of PRMIA’s SME advisory expert group on buy-side investment risk and sits on the UK Chapter Board of the Association of Sanctioned Certified Specialists.

Mark Croxon, Co-Founder, reifi
Mark is the co-founder of a market structure consulting firm providing strategy, advisory, and execution to the financial services industry across a broad set of challenges and opportunities.

He has over 30 years’ of experience in the financial industry helping clients to meet the challenges of lowering costs, improving efficiency, optimising financial resources, and creating sustainable returns.

Mark has a particular interest in leading industry working groups of peer competitors to gain consensus and to create momentum towards creating standards of best practice and adoption of innovative solutions.

He has worked in derivatives, prime brokerage and clearing at JPMorgan, Dresdner Bank, Barclays, HSBC and Nomura. In these roles, he often worked on the development of new businesses such as FX Prime Brokerage, Cross-Product Margining, and OTC Derivative Intermediation.

Post-financial crisis he worked closely with regulators and market infrastructure providers to develop a derivatives client clearing business at Nomura
Before establishing himself as an independent consultant, Mark spent two and a half years as European Head of Regulatory and Market Structure Strategy at Bloomberg, leading their MiFID II commercial and technological programme.

Mark is a graduate of Cardiff University holding a BSc Econ (Hons) in Banking and Finance and an MSc Econ in International Economics Banking and Finance.

Gem Conn, Vice President, Content Strategy and Quality for Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones
London-based Gem Conn has thirty years of experience in the business information industry. She’s been heavily involved with Dow Jones Risk & Compliance since its inception in 2000, defining content sets supporting the continued year-on-year growth to almost US$300m in fiscal year 2024.

Gem initially served as Vice President, Risk & Compliance Research, heading the large multilingual team who research, monitor and update the structured data relating to individuals and entities of interest to Dow Jones Risk & Compliance clients to support their sanctions, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption compliance programs. In her current role as Vice President, Data Strategy for Risk & Compliance, Gem has responsibility for developing additional proprietary content sets, overseeing Dow Jones’s rigorous data quality programs, —including the annual ISAE 3000 audit - upholding research standards and providing support to clients on data matters. Gem started her career at Reuters in London, becoming head of translations and research teams for European business news. She holds an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Westminster and a B.A. in Modern Languages from Trinity College, Dublin.

Magdalena Kurylowicz, VP and Anti Financial Crime (AFC) Officer, PIMCO Europe Ltd.
Magdalena has over 13 years of AFC experience across Assurance and Controls Testing, Target Operating Model (TOM) design and implementation and Forensic Investigations, focusing on Money Laundering, Sanctions, Fraud and Bribery & Corruption. Prior to joining PIMCO, Magdalena worked in several AFC roles at Deutsche Bank, including as an Anti-Bribery & Corruption Officer and Project Manager for AFC program enhancements for Deutsche Bank Group.

Kate Tuckley, Head of Department - Consumer Investments, FCA
Prior to joining the FCA in 2010 Kate worked as a lawyer specialising in financial services litigation in private practice. She has spent the majority of her career at the FCA working in Retail Enforcement leading the relationship management and strategy team overseeing referrals to Enforcement from Supervision. She is an experienced Head of Department having set up an Enforcement Department with a specific focus on Interventions and Threshold Conditions before leading an Investigation Department running some of the FCA’s most high profile, complex investigations. She also developed the FCA’s Financial Promotions strategy. In 2022 she moved to Supervision and since then has headed up the Department responsible for Investment Platforms, SIPP Operators, P2P and Crowdfunders as well as proactive teams that lead thematic projects, multi-firm work and with a specific focus on Financial Crime and Consumer Duty.

James King, Senior Policy Adviser, The Investment Association
James King is the Senior Policy Adviser at the Investment Association responsible for operational resilience, cyber resilience and technology.

Andy Richardson, National Protect Coordinator – Fraud, Economic and Cyber Crime, City of London
Andy Richardson is Policing’s National Protect Lead for Fraud, Economic and Cyber Crime. This is a role within the City of London Police who are the National Lead Force for Fraud as well as being the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) Lead for both Economic Crime and Cybercrime. Prior to taking up this role in March 2023, Andy was Detective Superintendent Head of Economic and Cyber Crime for the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) and before that, the Head of Economic and Cyber Crime for Sussex and Surrey Police.

John Greene, Executive Director - Financial Institutions, Howden Insurance Brokers
John has over 20 years of experience in financial risk and insurance for Financial Institutions.
Over the course of his career he has managed the financial lines insurance programmes (Crime, PI, Cyber, D&O insurances) for systemically important financial institutions including the banks, wealth / investment managers, asset managers and exchanges and has been involved with the insurance responses to some well-known and less well known frauds, data breaches and financial sector issues. He is now an Executive Director in Howdens’ financial institutions division one of the largest three financial lines practices in London.

Lisa Lee Lewis, Partner, Addleshaw Goddard
Lisa specialises in financial services regulation and financial crime prevention and provides a unique blend of legal, risk and compliance advice to a spectrum of financial services firms and unregulated institutions. She has a depth of expertise across a number of financial crime areas including anti-money laundering, market abuse, anti-bribery and corruption, sanctions, and fraud. She continually works at Board and senior management level to help them navigate complex regulatory issues and regulatory change requirements including delivering bespoke training at all levels. Lisa collaborates closely with firms to assess scope, implement and enhance risk and compliance frameworks, map and mitigate risks, assess governance structures, as well as support on authorisations and regulatory relationship matters. She has led s166 assessments and provides support on shadow s166 and assurance reviews.

Headline Principal Sponsor: 

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance is a global provider of best-in-class risk data, web-based
software applications and scalable due diligence services that help organizations
manage risk and meet regulatory requirements related to financial crime, third-party risk
management, sanctions and international trade. Built on the legacy of one of the world’s
most trusted newsrooms, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance combines the expertise of a
multilingual research team with industry-leading data scientists and technologists to
provide actionable content structured specifically for compliance needs. Our solutions
were developed in partnership with top legal and political advisors — including former
regulators — to help our clients maintain consistency across global business units and
teams