The Standard Chartered Bank has hosted financial institution and correspondent banking clients from across Africa at the Bank’s Regional Correspondent Banking Academy to promote responsible financial inclusion and best practice sharing on emerging industry trends. The Academy is part of the Bank’s unique strategy of “de-risking through education” and creating a collaborative approach to manage financial crime risk in its correspondent banking portfolio.
The Academy has been designed as a platform to raise industry standards by empowering financial institutions to act effectively in fighting financial crime while also creating wider awareness on emerging technologies and financial disruption.
Those who attended the two day event in Johannesburg included regulators, multi-lateral institutions as well as senior business and compliance officers from some of Standard Chartered’s key respondent banking clients in Africa. The event is in its third successful year and took place between 4th and 5th July 2019.
To drive further public-private engagement, this year Standard Chartered partnered with the African Development Bank for the workshop. Presentations and panel discussions from subject matter experts on a wide range of topics included tackling cyber-enabled crime, combatting the transnational organised crime of illegal wildlife trafficking, strengthening controls to mitigate emerging risks in sanctions compliance and trade-based money laundering, as well as addressing challenges in managing new payment methods and the evolving regulatory landscape.
Heidi Toribio, Managing Director, Global Head Financial Institutions, Global Banking, at Standard Chartered Bank said that the initiative was key to preserving correspondent banking relationships, and removing ambiguity from compliance standards through partnership. “Correspondent banking goes to the heart of facilitating cross-border trade and financing growth, which is central to our DNA and our purpose as a bank; We set up the Correspondent Banking Academy four years ago to share our tools and experience to help our correspondent banking clients build robust controls for managing financial crime risk. Since we launched the Academy we have had 5,000 senior bankers in more than 70 countries take part in the program.”