Binance bolsters up its compliance and risk program with new recruits (Fintech Fridays with Binance Africa Ep.12)

[00:00:01] Hello everyone, welcome to the Fintech Friday series on The Sound of Accra Podcast where we unpack economic topics and affairs across the African continent. I'm your host Adrian Daniels. This special series on Fintech Friday is the final episode of a 12-part series where we explore blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in a lot more detail.

[00:00:23] In today's episode, I'm going to talk about a new recruitment round that Binance has recently made in efforts to tighten up their compliance and investigation teams to enhance safety and security for their 240 million plus customers, to maintain compliance standards as the company is rapidly expanding and also to make the platform even more robust.

[00:00:45] References used for today's episode will all be found in the podcast player description section below. Let's get straight to it.

[00:00:53] Okay, Binance, the global blockchain ecosystem behind the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, this week announced the appointment of key compliance and investigation highs as it continues to expand its compliance program and staff amid the industry and company's rapid maturation.

[00:01:14] Now, Binance expects to increase its compliance staff to over 645 employees by the end of 2024, which is a 34% growth between November 2023 and the end of 2024.

[00:01:27] Now, as of this week, Binance employs over 1,000 compliance staff and contractors and that is not a small number by any feat at all.

[00:01:37] Now, recent compliance hires that Binance has made include Todd McElduff, who joins Binance as its Enterprise Compliance Director.

[00:01:46] The Enterprise Compliance Team at Binance is responsible for working with law enforcement to service requests and conduct special investigations, as well as educating and training crime fighters, in addition to key areas like transaction monitoring, market surveillance and sanctions compliance.

[00:02:04] Now, Todd brings 20 years of a compliance experience with a focus on financial crimes in both traditional finance and fintech.

[00:02:13] Now, his previous roles include Senior Director, Head of Global Financial Crimes Oversight at PayPal and Executive Director.

[00:02:21] He was also the Head of Financial Crimes for Wealth Management and Banks at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for the execution of highly regulated financial crimes programs.

[00:02:31] He also held senior roles covering anti-money laundering and internal investigations at Morgan Stanley.

[00:02:38] Now, going by the credentials that Todd brings to Binance, and it's a wealth of experience that he has, he's clearly built for this role, for sure.

[00:02:46] In addition, Binance has brought on Lana Sinel-Nikova to become Binance's Business Compliance and Enterprise Wide Risk Assessment Director, providing end-to-end compliance control and advice to various business units across their products lifecycle, in addition to developing compliance risk programs on both global and local levels.

[00:03:09] Now, Lana brings over 13 years of experience in financial services, regulatory compliance and over 18 years in financial crime prevention.

[00:03:18] Now, her previous roles include Head of Risk and Compliance and then Chief Compliance Officer for the UK at Kraken, which is a smaller crypto trading platform, and the Head of Trading Product Compliance and the Head of Compliance and Money Launching Reporting Officer at Revolut Trading.

[00:03:37] A company who recently received a UK banking license.

[00:03:41] Binance's recruitment efforts don't stop there as they strive for excellence in all departments.

[00:03:47] Pauline Chan, former HSBC and JP Morgan executive, has also joined Binance as their compliance specialist.

[00:03:54] Now, a little bit more about Pauline.

[00:03:56] She's Binance compliance specialist for regulatory audits and exam in the global audit issue management team.

[00:04:03] Now, her role focuses on regulatory and audit issues management and closure validation.

[00:04:10] And so, Pauline is a fellow chartered accountant in England and Wales, and she has 19 years of experience that she's bringing to Binance in financial services, in addition to banking, with a focus on financial crime risk management and issue validation.

[00:04:25] Her previous roles include Senior Manager in wealth and private banking compliance and Senior Quality Assurance and Sustainability Manager at the Remediation Management Officer in the CEO Office at HSBC Hong Kong, where she provided governance support for its second line of compliance and the regulatory monitorship remediation and Assistant Vice President of the Global Finance Crime Compliance Testing at JP Morgan.

[00:04:53] Where she led the financial crime-related reviews for APAC regions.

[00:04:58] Other names that Binance have also added to their compliance and risk team include Celine Ennale, who's a former French law enforcement investigator who has joined Binance as Special Investigation Specialist for France.

[00:05:13] In addition, Binance have also brought on Kana Akurek, who's the former Europol and Turkish National Police Officer, who joins Binance as Special Investigation Specialist for Turkey.

[00:05:25] Now, when you look at all of the names that I've mentioned and the credentials that they bring to the table, most of which have almost 20 years of experience each in all of the various departments that they've worked in,

[00:05:39] it's clear to say that Binance has gone out to cherry-pick some of the world's best class talent to truly make their compliance teams one of the best in the world.

[00:05:49] They've gone out to find some truly A-class players.

[00:05:53] Now, here's what Binance Head Chief of Compliance, Noah Perlman, had to say about the latest movements they have made on the recruitment side of the business.

[00:06:03] Noah says,

[00:06:19] Noah also goes on to say,

[00:06:34] Noah then also goes on to say,

[00:06:36] Quote,

[00:06:37] We recently achieved our 20th global regulatory milestone, which is a testament to our efforts and commitment to working with regulators and industry partners and ensuring sustainable growth of the crypto industry.

[00:06:49] These efforts are supported by a robust compliance program that is comparable to financial institutions and our leading team of digital asset crime fighters who are keeping the ecosystem safe from bad actors and ensuring that Binance remains a trusted and secure platform for all of our users.

[00:07:10] Unquote.

[00:07:10] Unquote.

[00:07:11] Now, when you hear something like that, Binance clearly is not waiting for 2025 to make some reinforcements to their compliance and risk team.

[00:07:21] They are clearly being very proactive in making sure that they not only just maintain the position as industry leaders and pioneers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

[00:07:33] They also want to excel the benchmark that they've already set in the industry.

[00:07:40] Having said that, thank you all for listening to this episode and I hope you've enjoyed the Fintech Friday series of Binance Africa.

[00:07:48] Binance is a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users.

[00:07:56] Binance is trusted by more than 200 million people in 100 plus countries for its industry leading security, transparency, trading engine speed, protections for investors and unmatched portfolio of digital asset products and offerings from trading to finance to education, research, social good, payments, institutional services and web free features.

[00:08:20] Binance is devoted to building an inclusive crypto ecosystem to increase the freedom of money and financial access for people around the world with crypto as the fundamental means.

[00:08:32] For more information, visit www.binance.com.