Panama Papers and PEP Screening - KYC and Sanctions Filtering

Why Should You Attend:

This webinar will explore the operational implications of dealing with this heightened-risk category. In principle, there is nothing wrong with doing business with a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), provided that a number of due diligence criteria are met on an ongoing basis. What differentiates PEPs from other categories of financial clients is their position within a country or similar public structure, or their association with a political officeholder.

It is not that PEPs are predisposed to committing financial crimes, but rather that their position, in relation to state funds and other ‘cookie jar’ opportunities, significantly heightens the risk that they may do something corrupt, fraudulent or otherwise illegal. In addition, it is seldom the primary officeholder that brings increased reputational risk; instead, it is with their associates, law firms, businesses partners and potentially shadowy middlemen that the real risk lies.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

In accordance with regulatory obligations, there are strict procedures in place to minimize the risk that could be used for money laundering purposes including:

• BSA/AML Compliance Management
• Sanctions Screening/PEP Screening
• Knowing Your Customer (KYC)
• Beneficial Owners
• Proper Identification of Your Clients and Vendors
• How Digitization Has Changed Movement of Money
• AML Compliance and Digital Currencies
• Monitoring, Investigating and Reporting Suspicious Transactions
• Training Staff to Recognize Suspicious Transactions and to be Aware of Their Reporting Obligations

Who Will Benefit:

• Compliance Managers and Officers
• Risk Managers and Officers
• Controllers
• Presidents/Vice Presidents
• Managers/Supervisors
• Independent Sales Organizations
• CFOs and Presidents of Payment Service Providers
• Managers of Payment Service Providers

Armen Khachadourian
President and Founder, Digital Payments LLC

Armen Khachadourian is the founder and president of Digital Payments Inc., a consulting firm providing advisory services in the areas of merchant processing, ISO/MSP formation, development of best practices, BSA/AML guidelines, merchant portfolio and acquiring acquisitions, prepaid and alternative payment products including decoupled debit. As a trusted partner with vision to understand his client’s future business he has helped design and evaluate new products and services in today's changing marketplace.

Mr. Khachadourian has also served in executive positions at several top ten financial institutions and helped them maximize growth and revenues in today’s challenging electronic payments marketplace. As a vice president of JPMorgan Chase’s Prepaid Product in Treasury Services he was responsible for designing and launching prepaid cards in the EU market. As a senior vice president at Visa USA, he expanded card acceptance to new markets such as supermarkets, recurring payments, quick service restaurants and federal government agencies. His expertise in card products extends to issuance of credit, debit, prepaid and commercial cards. He is also an experienced manager of technology solutions including development of best practices, network policy, third-party processor contract negotiation and problem resolution.

Mr. Khachadourian earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and a Master of Science degree in computer science from the San Jose State University in California. He authored the “Basics of Data Communications” textbook and lectured at College of San Mateo, CA. He was awarded an honorary teaching credential from State of California. He is a member of the United States National Masters team and has represented United States at four world championships.

Topic Background:

Reports published in the Panama Papers on the secretive industry that banks and lawyers use to hide the financial holdings of some of the world’s top leaders and billionaires brought a powerful global response. The documents expose the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders, associates of presidents and high profile individuals. In principle, there is nothing wrong with doing business with a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), provided that a number of due diligence criteria are met on an ongoing basis.

This increased scrutiny has resulted in a recent spike in the number of companies getting, exposed, fined for sanctions breaches, which clearly indicates the need for banks to re-evaluate their existing compliance programs to ensure that they provide maximum protection from increased regulatory scrutiny and serious risk.

Two areas of significant interest are know your customer (KYC) procedures – which involve customer acceptance, identification, and verification policies and the risk profiling of clients – and sanctions filtering, which involves filtering customers and counterparties against government sanctions lists, suspected terrorists, narcotics traffickers, and designated financial institutions and territories.

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