IA Financial Crime Forum 2026

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, as well as key business risk and tax issues 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. Through the Risk and Tax Unit, Andrew has responsibility for representing member interests on business risks which include financial crime, legal and prudential requirements and tax issues. 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.

Amar Patel, Partner, CTO/CISO, Fundsmith

Amar Patel is a Partner (CTO / CISO) at Fundsmith, where he leads the firm’s global technology, cyber security, and operational resilience strategy. With over 26 years of experience, Amar ensures Fundsmith’s IT infrastructure and security posture support its growth and regulatory obligations across multiple jurisdictions. He also serves as Chair of the Institute of Corporate Resilience and as a Non-Executive Director at St Luke’s Hospice..

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.

Beth Harris, Head of Financial Crime, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Beth joined the FSA in 2004 and has since held senior roles in Retail and Enforcement Legal before becoming a manager, and then Head of Department in 2019 in Enforcement’s Unauthorised Business Department (UBD). Under Beth’s leadership, UBD moved from running only two criminal cases to a position where 75% of the portfolio was criminal. The department has charged in excess of 50 people and firms. Beth has led a number of media campaigns (featured on BBC News, Sky News, BBC radio) successfully promoting our work to fight financial crime. Beth has recently moved to be Head of Financial Crime Supervision where the department provides the organisation with specialist financial crime resource. Beth is a solicitor and trained and worked at Irwin Mitchell prior to joining the FCA. 

Carol Smit, Executive Officer, The Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG)

Carol is both an advocate and forensic accountant with over 30 years’ experience within the legal arena and the financial services industry. She has held a number of directorships and executive positions, including within asset management and private banking, and has consulted to international corporates across various sectors. Her extensive legal, risk, and financial background has also led her to pivotal roles in many high-profile financial crime investigations and accompanying litigation support.

She is the Draftsperson and Editor of JMLSG Guidance, chairs JMLSG’s Editorial Panel, and serves as the Company Secretary of JMLSG.

Christopher Robinson, Partner, Freshfields

Christopher is a partner in our London financial disputes practice and advises on a wide range of litigation and investigations in the banking and financial services sector. Christopher also serves as Chair of the Firm’s Global Risk and Conduct Committee. Christopher has particular expertise in disputes concerning wholesale market misconduct, financial crime, complex and high value insurance coverage matters, governance and cultural issues and other risk issues. He enjoys working with clients to solve their most complex problems, often as part of a cross-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary team.

Fran Dowling, Deputy Director, Head of Fraud Policy Unit, UK Home Office

Fran has twenty years of experience working in security policy, foreign policy, economics, and strategy at the Home Office, Foreign Office, Treasury and Department for Business & Trade. She worked in Banking and for an Economic Development Consultancy before joining the Civil Service. While at the Home Office and Foreign Office she has covered issues including disruptions, legislation, critical response functions, energy, climate change, & trade.;

Graham Peachey, Senior Policy Advisor, Home Office

Graham is the UK Home Office’s thematic specialist for investment migration risks. Beginning his career as an operational officer with UK Border Force, Graham moved to Migration Policy where he has specialised in Investment Migration policy issues either domestic or international for most of the last 8 years. He was a project co-lead for the Financial Action Task Force’s 2023 project on Misuse of Residency and Citizenship by Investment Programmes. 

Jacob Koree, Manager, Novatus Global

Jacob Koree (CAMS) is a financial crime subject matter expert with extensive experience in managing and advising on financial crime compliance across global organisations. He is currently a Manager at Novatus Global where he leads the Financial Crime Proposition. Jacob’s recent engagements include managing a large-scale financial remediation programme for a large digital investment platform provider, developing policy documents, designing risk assessments, and deploying a strategic financial crime machine learning product for a Global Tier 1 Bank. His expertise extends to advising clients on operational and financial crime risk frameworks and emerging risks, as well as leading on training initiatives. Jacob's educational background includes an MSc in Management, Organisations and Governance from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics & Management Studies from the University of Leicester. Jacob has demonstrated his proficiency in the field, further underscored by his role as an Ambassador for the Violent Crimes Prevention Board, collaborating with local authorities to prevent violent crimes in London.

John Clarke, Group Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Schroders

John is the Group Head of Financial Crime Compliance for Schroders as well as performing MLRO duties for several of Schroder’s UK legal entities. In addition to his work with Schroders, John is also a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group Editorial Panel representing the Investment Association and previously chaired the Investment Association Financial Crime Committee.

James King, Head of Resilience, The Investment Association

James King is the Head of Resilience at the Investment Association responsible for operational resilience, cyber resilience and technology.

Karl Sammie, Deputy MLRO, Fundsmith

Karl Sammie is Head of the Financial Crime team and Deputy MLRO at Fundsmith and currently serves as Chair of the IA Financial Crime Committee. He has over 16 years’ experience working across the banking sector, including 11 years in first- and second-line Financial Crime Prevention roles.

Laura Lehane, Head of Financial Crime and MLRO, AJ Bell

Laura joined AJ Bell in June 2024 as the Head of Financial Crime and MLRO, where she leads the development of financial crime frameworks and ensures compliance with AML, CTF, Market Abuse and fraud regulations.  Since joining AJ Bell, she has been an advocate in AI, data sharing and collaboration across sectors to prevent, detect and deter financial crime.  Laura spent 20 years at NatWest, with the last 12 in financial crime roles across both first and second lines, including operations, controls, transaction monitoring and second line oversight.