Andrew
Mackay
Andrew is an independent AML/CFT Compliance Consultant currently engaged in the Caribbean, Malta and other International Financial Centres. Previously Andrew was the Head of Financial Crime Threat Mitigation for HSBC in Malta. This role involved identifying, understanding and mitigating the financial crime risks in Malta and transnationally through Investigations, Analytics and Intelligence.
Andrew enjoyed a career in the Royal Navy where his early sea-going deployments included the Caribbean for hurricane relief and counter-narcotics operations, and global deployments to the Middle East and Far East for defence engagement and security assurance operations. He undertook a number of operational deployments in the Balkans (2003) in support of investigations into war criminal financial facilitation and support networks, Iraq (2004 and 2007) investigating Iraqi WMD sanctions evasions and terrorist networks, Afghanistan (2009), and Bahrain (2011) for maritime security operations, counter-narcotics, counter-piracy and counter-terrorism roles in the Gulf and Indian Ocean.
Andrew served in the Ministry of Defence in London and the NATO Headquarters in Naples, Italy and also spent 4 years as a liaison officer in Washington DC where his remit included geo-political analysis, counter-terrorism, technology and innovation design and acquisition, and specialising in Threat Finance (the Department of Defense term for hybrid AML/CFT warfare) in relation to homeland security threats. This involved working closely with international intelligence and law enforcement agencies, academia, think-tanks, regulators and vendors.
Andrew is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI). He is Co-Chair of the ACAMS Malta Chapter and a former member of the Washington DC Chapter. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from Queen Mary, University of London and a Master’s degree with Distinction in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College, London with a dissertation focused on the use of intelligence in financial institutions for AML/CFT Compliance. Following a Master’s level module at the United Nations’ University for Peace (UPEACE), his current academic interests are the Crime-Terror Nexus in Relation to Illicit Finance, Moving from Follow the Money to Getting Ahead of the Money through Predictive Intelligence, and Financial Intelligence as a New Intelligence Discipline.