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Jun 11, 2024 | 
finextra.com | Harriet Christie |Barley Laing |Vipin Sharma |Helena Wood
The important of cross-border payments cannot be underestimated. They are essential for facilitating international trade, promoting economic growth, supporting globalisation and enhancing financial inclusion, driving innovation. Combined, these factors contribute
to a more dynamic and interconnected global economy.
With this in mind, the launch of
Project Agorá from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is a significant and positive step forward.
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Jun 6, 2024 | 
finextra.com | Barley Laing |Vipin Sharma |Helena Wood |Adam Lieberman
The typical narrative is that as time passes, digital regulation becomes more stringent. Accountability becomes a greater requirement as technology continues to advance and occupy a more meaningful proportion of our professional lives. There’s nothing new
here, and yet recent regulatory activity has been even more intense than expected across a variety of global organizations.
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Jun 6, 2024 | 
finextra.com | Vipin Sharma |Helena Wood |Adam Lieberman |Ketharaman Swaminathan
It has been estimated by MITSloan that the cumulative cost of inaccurate data is 15 to 25 per cent of revenue for most organisations. This is because poor quality data wastes resources, undermines everyday operations and communications – particularly personalised
customer communications.
It causes inefficiencies in both time and money in the creation and delivery of communications that often aren’t relevant or might not even reach the intended customer.
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May 28, 2024 | 
finextra.com | Helena Wood |Adam Lieberman |Ketharaman Swaminathan |Francesco Fulcoli
With a General Election announced for 4 July, now is the perfect time for a stock take on the progress made over the past decade in relation to tackling fraud. For the most part, this was a decade in which fraud felt like the Cinderella of the criminal justice
system; a crime neglected by politicians and police alike while other crime types received the bulk of political attention and, by extension, resources.
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May 23, 2024 | 
rusi.org | Helena Wood
For many working in the counter-fraud profession, the 2010s are very much seen as a ‘lost decade’ during which the state-led counter-fraud effort stagnated at precisely the same time as organised fraudsters were capitalising on a range of technological and societal advances. By the time of the Covid-19 pandemic – itself an accelerator of the problem – the crime had reached astronomical levels, costing the UK economy an estimated £190 billion a year.
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Nov 27, 2023 | 
finextra.com | Stephan Wolf |Nick Green |Helena Wood
In the ever-evolving landscape of global finance, institutions find themselves managing reporting challenges against changing currency markets, a surge in the U.S. dollar and geopolitical events. As the year comes to a close, the complexities associated
with these dynamic conditions demand a closer look. Institutions can glean valuable insights from the following best practices to transform data, analytics, and reporting challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience.
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Nov 26, 2023 | 
fintechna.com | Helena Wood
Money laundering is the lifeblood of organised criminals – put simply, without the ability to move and convert criminal proceeds into “clean” money to fund further crime and the lavish lifestyle criminals aspire to, organised crime gangs cease to function. It has long been known that organised fraud gangs rely heavily on the use of networks of so-called ‘money mules’ to move criminal cash through the financial system.
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Oct 30, 2023 | 
conservativehome.com | Helena Wood
Helena Wood is Head of Public Policy at Cifas. In May 2023, the Government launched its first-ever Fraud Strategy – and not before time. As pointed out by Simon Fell, on this platform earlier this year, fraud is the most common crime in the UK, representing over 41 per cent of all crime. Crime of this scale not only has significant implications for individuals and businesses, but also comes at a significant cost to the UK economy.
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Jul 25, 2023 | 
labourlist.org | Helena Wood
In her recent letter to the Home Secretary, Emily Thornberry’s criticism of the government’s recently launched Fraud Strategy was unequivocal – though welcome, the long-delayed strategy in her view “does not come anywhere close to what we need”. As Labour’s emerging leading voice on tackling the growing epidemic of fraud, the Shadow Attorney General is right to begin agitating on this issue.
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Apr 6, 2023 | 
rusi.org | Maria Nizzero |Kathryn Westmore |Helena Wood
Going further, ECP2 promises bolder information sharing, including in relation to Companies House data, a focus on tackling the scourge of ‘professional enablers’ through better collaboration and information sharing between the public and private sector, and – most importantly – a new Public- Private Economic Crime Data Strategy, which will consider how to ‘review and improve’ how data is used across the system.
