AFC in Practice: Reducing the Noise in Sanctions Screening

Sam Cousins is a Senior Associate at ACAMS, where his work includes supporting public-private partnerships and strengthening ACAMS thought leadership pillar through the development of content on sanctions and risk, particularly the Sanctions Masterclass program and Global Monthly Update. Sam's work also focuses on countering ransomware financing, which includes enhancing industry awareness of the anti-financial crime risks associated with ransomware attacks and supporting the mitigation of those risks through policies, training and public-private dialogue.

Prior to ACAMS, Sam worked on the Sanctions Policy team at UK Finance - the trade association for the UK banking sector.

Beth Beam is the Head of OFAC and AB&C for TD Bank NA.  Prior to joining TD, she was the Global Head of Sanctions at Interactive Brokers, and at Silicon Valley Bank, where she oversaw the pillars of the sanctions program, including system governance, risk assessment, training, screening operations, client due diligence, and policies and procedures, across the global enterprise. Prior to joining SVB, Beth was at Citigroup focused on regulatory change management, complex escalations, and liaising with OFAC. At Ernst & Young, Beth assisted clients ranging from payment processors to large financial institutions with sanctions issues. Beth started in sanctions in the Enforcement Division of OFAC investigating potential violations of U.S. sanctions by large multinational companies. Beth holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. from the London School of Economics.

Sandhya Iyer specializes in Testing & Optimization of Screening Solutions and is currently working with ING. Sandhya is dedicated to the field of screening. Her expertise includes implementation & maintenance of robust screening protocols, streamlining processes and ensuring the screening software maintains a good balance between effectiveness & efficiency.

Prior to ING, Sandhya has worked with banks like Standard Chartered (Singapore) & ABN AMRO/RBS (India) with a similar focus. She is also experienced in handling Regulatory audits of the screening software and providing as clear explanations as possible for the software behaviour (where applicable).