House - Issue 76
Welcome...
...to the 76th Edition of House, and the first of 2022! We hope you and yours' had a fantastic holiday season, and are as excited for the next 12 months as we are.
Following a period of deregulation under the Trump Administration, 2021 was by all accounts the year of the regulator, with the election of U.S. President Joe Biden prompting a widespread change in regulatory attitudes.
Emerging technology in the form of cryptocurrency and digital e-payments, paired with ample financial and geopolitical volatility, incentivised an agenda of increased oversight amongst regulatory agencies, with Gary Gensler and the SEC leading from the front.
It’s safe to say Gensler has had his work cut out for him over the past 12 months…
The proliferation of emerging technologies and products within financial services, brought about an aggressive hiring spree at regulatory agencies across the United States.
Digital assets continued to defy all regulatory expectations and edged closer to the mainstream of financial services, while markets saw the emergence of “meme stocks” and what has come to be known as the “gamification of trading”, with novice investors causing mayhem over Reddit.
What’s more, is Gensler has repeatedly alluded to the lack of senior staff at regulatory agencies, therein adding to the myriad of challenges in adopting a stricter approach to his predecessors, while navigating through a pandemic.
As such, the SEC prioritised their search for senior leadership, and announced Dan Berkowitz as their General Counsel, amongst other key senior appointments.
Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) appointed Rohit Chopra as their Director, while Seth Frotman joined as Acting General Counsel.
Needless to say, 2021-22 was a busy year on all fronts, with a series of pivotal developments and executive hires within regulation and financial crime.
2021 - The West
A key theme in Gensler’s leadership so far, has been assessing the regulatory risks present within the digital asset space, and associated technologies such as blockchain.
When considering crypto’s astronomical growth over the past year or so, and the multitude of legal and regulatory dilemmas that have risen as consequence, it’s easy to see why the industry continues to attract skepticism from regulators and governments alike.
Throughout 2021, U.S. Federal and regulatory agencies actively expressed their concern surrounding digital assets, and their inherent potential as vehicles for money laundering, tax & sanctions evasion, cybersecurity concerns, as well as deregulated exposure to investment firms.
The subsequent creation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), combining the collective expertise of several divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice, is almost certain to encourage crypto-firms to proactively add to their legal and compliance teams throughout 2022, as was very much the case over the past year.
Amidst growing tensions, exchanges have worked over time throughout 2021 in the pursuit of experienced regulatory professionals, with Binance in particular nearly doubling their compliance presence over the course of the year.
Following the early appointments of FATF veterans, Josée Nadeau and Rick McDonnell as Senior Compliance & Regulatory Advisors, Binance appointed Matt Gamble as their Director of Compliance for MENA, along with Amjad Qaqish as their Director of Global Suspicious Activity Reporting.
Meanwhile, blockchain.com appointed CJ Rinaldi as their inaugural Chief Compliance Officer, while Coinbase announced the respective appointments of Molly G. Abraham as a Director & Associate General Counsel, along with Ian Rooney as their Head of Enterprise Compliance.
Setting aside the world of crypto, the tech & corporate sector experienced its fair share of regulatory upheaval throughout 2021-22.
The development of customer engagement on social media platforms, along with their monopoly over demographic and behavioural data from our online activities, emerged as a considerable concern amongst regulators, who saw the need for rapid reform.
In due course, the European Union passed a series of regulations aimed at preventing the spread of terrorist content online, requiring platforms to act upon removal orders within 24 hours of receiving them, or risk 4% of their global turnover in penalties and fines.
As a result of prolonged scrutiny in regards to data and anti-trust issues, as well as a global change in attitudes towards social media and its impact on society, organisations across the globe responded by making relevant senior appointments, in a bid to satisfy increasing regulatory expectations.
Facebook subsequently appointed Bobbi-Jean Liyari as their Interim Lead for Global HR Risk, Privacy & Compliance, Michelle Piwowarski as their Global Product Compliance Manager, as well as Eric Meiring, Jimmy Yun and Belinda Urquhart as Associate General Counsels.
Similarly, Twitter announced Jisha Dymond as their Head of Regulatory Compliance & Risk, while appointing Raven Norris and Karen Colangelo as their respective Senior Counsel, and Senior Legal Director & Head, of Global Litigation, Regulatory Affairs & Competition.
2021 - The East
Throughout 2021, major institutions across APAC & Greater China were pressured into reassessing their business models, in an attempt to accommodate evolving regulatory and legislative priorities.
FinTech’s in particular attracted a fair share of regulatory attention across 2021, with the abrupt and widely publicised cancellation of Ant Financials IPO around the start of last year, reiterating China’s tightening grip on the perhaps inevitable conjunction between BigTech and finance.
China’s escalation of oversight into the corporate and FinTech space is explained by concerns over competition and consumer data, their motive being to curb monopolistic practices akin to that of Amazon’s dominance across U.S. markets.
On a similar note, regulatory agencies across APAC adopted a far more conservative approach to cryptocurrency over 2021, as compared to their western counterparts, with China in particular looking to heavily clamp down on the industry.
Given China's commitment to preventing financial crimes and monopolistic practices, they remain wary of the series of potential risks digital assets pose to the stability and longevity of their financial system.
By May last year, regulators had effectively banned financial institutions and payment providers from offering ‘crypto’ related services to customers, which was shortly followed by the removal of all accounts and profiles related to cryptocurrency on the Mainland’s Twitter equivalent of Weibo.
However, as China pursued the integration of a sovereign digital currency in the DCEP, and as the HKMA and SFC continued to explore the plausibility of ‘crypto ETFs’ to HK-based investors, exchanges across APAC continued to bolster their regulatory arsenals.
Last year in Hong Kong, BitMEX internally promoted Sarah Trueman to their Head of Regulatory Affairs, while appointing Jugnu Kumar Verma as a Senior Compliance Officer, Christopher Pietrzykowski as a Regulatory Compliance Officer, Anthony Gaudeneche as a Senior Compliance Operations Specialist, Carl Cheung as a Senior Security Compliance Analyst, along with Ben Yates as their Head of Legal, focussing on Regulatory Affairs & Disputes.
Meanwhile, Marcus Hughes was appointed BitMEX's Chief Risk Officer in London, while in Singapore Dias Malayev joined as an AML Compliance Officer, and Noel Chetty was appointed Head of Custody and Compliance Engineering.
Similarly, Ripple appointed Kevin Lim as their Head of Legal & Compliance, BitGo appointed Payal Patel as their APAC CCO, while Luno named Anthony Yeoh as their Regional Head of Compliance for South East Asia.
We expect regulatory hiring within cryptocurrency to rapidly escalate over the next 12 months, and encourage our subscribers to reach out to us if this space is relevant to their interests or career plans.
Singapore in particular is set to be a booming market for crypto-compliance officers, as regulators seek to transform the city-state into a key player within the digital asset space, all the while maintaining high regulatory standards
Stay tuned for our next edition of House, which will cover our predictions for hiring across 2022!
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Movers
APAC
Crypto.com internally promoted Marcus Or to Director of Information Security Governance, based in Hong Kong.
Bovill internally promoted Clarissa Lam to Managing Consultant & Head of their Hong Kong Practice.
China Life Franklin Asset Management appointed Yvonne Ye as a Director of Compliance, from Harvest Global Investments, based in Hong Kong.
Manulife appointed Albert Chiu as their Head of Compliance for Hong Kong & Macau, from the Insurance Authority, based in Hong Kong.
BitMEX internally promoted to Thomas Hill their Legal Counsel, based in Hong Kong.
Wellington Management appointed Cathy Chen as an Investment Compliance Officer, from China Life Franklin Asset Management, based in Hong Kong.
Credit Suisse appointed Jacky Sun as a Vice President within their Investment Banking & Capital Markets Compliance team for Asia Pacific. Jacky joins from Bank of Shanghai, and will be based Hong Kong.
Bank of China appointed Emil Yeung as a Senior AML Manager, from AIA, based in Hong Kong.
OCBC Bank appointed Alan Siu as their Head of Regulatory Compliance, from OCBC Wing Hang, based in Hong Kong.
Alvarez & Marsal appointed Jay Chong as a Senior Director within Forensic Technology Services, from GSH Capital, based in Hong Kong.
KPMG appointed Chad Olsen as a Partner and Forensic Leader, from Deloitte, based in Hong Kong.
Control Risks appointed Pamela Qiu as a Partner and Geo-market Lead for South East Asia, from The Economist Intelligence Unit, based in Singapore.
Hang Seng Bank internally promoted Victor Lee to their Head of Financial Crime Compliance, based in Hong Kong.
Nomura appointed Christine Lo as an Associate within their Compliance and Control Room for Asia-ex Japan, from PwC, based in Hong Kong.
HSBC appointed Nelson Lee as a Financial Crime Compliance Manager, from Credit Suisse, based in Hong Kong.
HSBC internally promoted Mike Weng to Senior Investigations Manager, based in Hong Kong.
OCBC Wing Hang Bank internally promoted Tony Yung to Assistant Vice President within their Compliance Division, based in Hong Kong.
Kroll appointed Saket Bhartia as a Managing Director within their Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice for South East Asia. He joins from EY, and will be based in Singapore.
AMERICAS
TikTok appointed Catherine Razzano as their Head Of Legal Compliance, from Panasonic, based in Los Angeles.
Westpac appointed Ryan Zanin as their Chief Risk Officer, from the Federal National Mortgage Association, based in New York.
The New York Department of Financial Services permanently appointed Adrienne Harris as their Superintendent.
Coinbase appointed Thaya Knight as a Senior Public Policy Manager focussing on Capital Markets Regulatory Affairs. Thaya joins from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and will be based in Washington D.C.
General Atlantic appointed Cornelia Gomez as their Head of ESG & Sustainability, from PAI Partners, based in Washington D.C.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appointed Seth Frotman as their Acting General Counsel & Senior Advisor to the Director. He joins from Student Borrower Protection Center, and will be based in Washington D.C.
Bovill appointed Kayan Lee-Mckenzie as a Compliance Consultant, from the National Futures Association, based out of New York.
Binance appointed Lawrence Truong as a Vice President & General Manager for Canada, from Coinsquare, based out of Toronto.
Aura appointed Ling-Ling Ni as their Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, & Head of Government Affairs. She joins from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and will be based out of Atlanta.
Binance appointed Darren Gross as a Compliance Director, from DG Legal & Compliance, based out of Calgary.
EMEA
BitMEX appointed Marcus Hughes as their Chief Risk Officer, from Coinbase, based out of London.
Binance appointed Michael Isaacs as a Senior Counsel & Head of Litigation for the U.K., from BT, based out of London.
FTI Consulting appointed Cyril Naudin as a Senior Managing Director, Head of Investigation & Compliance, from Deloitte, based out of Paris.
FTI Consulting appointed Karl Payeur as a Senior Managing Director, Head of Forensic & Litigation Consulting and Technology, from Deloitte, based out of Paris.
The Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) hired Debbie Chan as a Compliance Director, from Hudson Advisors L.P., based out of London.
AUS/NZ
JANA Investment Advisors hired Lindy Hunt as their Head of Legal Risk and Compliance, from Club Plus Super, based out of Sydney.
The Northern Trust Corporation appointed Donna Maloney as their MLRO/AUS Financial Crime Compliance Lead, from Bank of Queensland, based out of Melbourne.