Announcing the TWELVE Associates for the 2021 Canada Program
After reviewing nearly 150 applications, the following 12 individuals have been selected to join the TWELVE Program as Associates for 2021. Click on their headshot to learn more about them.
Florence is a keen and enthusiastic learner with diverse experience in banking internationally. She was an investigator in the financial intelligence unit for Scotiabank, where she gained a rich experience in complex investigations involving terrorist financing, different fraud typologies, sanctions related cases as well as cases involving organized crime which improved her analytical skills.
Florence recently accepted an offer to join AML Rightsource as a senior analyst.
Previously she worked in various capacities in 2 banks in Nigeria (United Bank for African and First Bank of Nigeria Ltd) where she gained experiences in Client Onboarding, KYC Operations, AML investigations and Electronic Products Operations.
Bincy working as Customer Experience Lead with Scotiabank. As a front line leader, her primary focus is to guide and oversee the overall success of the retail service team; ensuring business strategies, initiatives and specific individual goals are executed and delivered in support of the branch business strategies and objectives. She is responsible for leading and driving a customer focused culture to deepen client relationship. Bincy is passionate in coaching and developing my team members and implementing strategies for competitive function.
Bincy is the designated Primary Anti Money Laundering Compliance of her branch. As an AMLCO, she is responsible for providing coaching and guidance to all branch employees, as required for any anti-money laundering process or scenarios ensuring that the branch is in compliance with the KYC, CDD requirements, detecting and reporting unusual transactions and LCTR filing.
n 2016 after having completed a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies- Peter had a couple years working-experience at several Telecommunications companies and with TD Securities. It was in 2017 when Peter developed a keen interest in Financial Crimes (specifically Fraud) and in Law (specifically Case Law). After delving himself fully into the topics he wanted to combine the two in a short program and completed a Paralegal Accelerated Diploma from Seneca College. During his time there in addition to learning different types of law he was offered an opportunity to represent Seneca at a National Mooting Competition-with his team placing 3rd.
Upon graduation Peter joined RBC and progressed from Intern to Regional Advisor to AML Investigator within the FIU. Peter found Anti-Money Laundering and cases more to his liking in early 2020 joining several groups that speak about best practices and interesting cases.
Spandana holds a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) designation and
an MBA in Finance from India. She possesses over 4 years of experience in Trade Finance, Accounts, Credit and Compliance. She is currently working as an AML Solutions Specialist with Royal Bank of Canada.
Being predominantly an investigative individual, with an inquisitive and curious mind, She decided to take up this daunting yet very fulfilling task of transitioning into the Financial Crime field. She likes taking up challenges and is enjoying this process while keeping herself abreast with the current legal and regulatory environment.
Joel is currently working as an AML investigator within the financial intelligence unit for Scotiabank, within this role he has gained an interest in complex investigations, terrorist financing, sanctions related cases as well as cases involving organized crime. Joel also recently competed the Manchester CF Financial Intelligence Specialist certificate.
Prior to his role with Scotiabank Joel spent approximately 12 years in law enforcement where he conducted a variety of criminal investigations and focused much of his efforts gathering intelligence on the drug trade and street gangs in his community. Joel was promoted to an acting sergeant where he was team lead for a critical project in a high risk community.
Ashika Verma is an MBA graduate from the prestigious Schulich School of Business along with an undergrad degree in law from India. She is passionate about all things Risk Management and Compliance specifically Regulatory Compliance and Financial crimes.
Before moving to Canada to pursue her MBA, Ashika worked as an in-house lawyer for tech companies wherein she provided legal advisory on corporate, IP, contract, and privacy laws. She also performed legal due diligence, advised on regulatory implications of launching new products and services and provided legal support for growth strategies. During her MBA she interned with Scotiabank with their AML Audit team and has been a part of various AML, Compliance and Risk networking circles across Toronto. She is passionate about various fincrime, risk and compliance practice areas in financial institutions, consulting firms and building a network of likeminded professionals.
Arshia is an enthusiastic and a keen learner with diverse experience in banking locally and internationally.
Currently Arshia is working in Scotiabank. Being in the first line of defence, She has to be an attentive audience and be the guardian of the firm. She is keen to learn about investigations pertaining to money laundering, fraud and human trafficking in order to take care of the most obvious risks of the business.
Arshia holds an undergraduate degree in Genetic and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Osmania University in India. Recently, she completed an AML administration course from Seneca college. In the near future, She is looking forward to complete CAMS/CFCS, in order to be well aware of the processes to benefit as part of the due diligence efforts in compliance.
Prabha Iyer is a financial services industry professional with over 6 years of international work experience. Her career started as an Accounts Executive, in an Accounting firm, after she graduated from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, University of Mumbai and completed Accounting Technician Certification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Subsequently, she worked for 4 years at IndusInd bank’s Fixed Income and Money Market department (Treasury Operations). Having taken up the role of deputy manager, she developed expertise in handling operational part of Fixed Income and Money Market products, regulatory reporting, and compliance with regulatory policies having an impact on operations.
After moving to Canada, she joined Dynacare Insurance Solutions in 2019 and kick-started her career. Thereafter, her desire to gain knowledge of Financial Compliance in the Canadian banking industry persuaded her to take up the Financial Services Compliance Administration (FCA) program at Seneca College. While working at Dynacare she enrolled for FCA program and graduated in 2020 with high honors. Presently she is working as a Financial Operations Analyst at BMO and pursuing the CFCS certification.
Mohit Dysell is currently working as a Financial Services Associate with CIBC. He is passionate about ATF, sanctions, and cryptocurrency, and envisions a career as a financial crime specialist.
In his current role, Mohit is responsible for client onboarding and actively pursuing effective and efficient lending and investment operations while ensuring the adequacy, adherence to, and effectiveness of day-to-day business controls to meet obligations with respect to operational risk, regulatory compliance risk, and AML/ATF risk.
As a new graduate from the University of Calgary with a Bachelors degree in Finance, Mac has already accumulated a wealth of knowledge in the area of financial crime. During his time at the University of Calgary, Mac worked with the Calgary Police Service for two years as an Auxiliary member, where he first discovered his passion for solving complex investigative puzzles. He then moved on to the Alberta Securities Commission where he secured multiple internships in the Enforcement Division focusing on investigations relating to breaches of securities laws in Alberta and the New Economy Division where he researched the use of digital financial instruments and their role in financial markets.
Serge Tokar immigrated to Canada as a foreign legal professional. He has a Master of Laws in International Business Law and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Central Lancashire (United Kingdom). He is a co-author of a series of academic papers on consumer behaviour.
In Canada, Serge finished Financial Crime Analysis (CIFCA) programme at Seneca College, received an OSINT certificate from Toddington International and acquired a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) designation.
Prat Agrawal is an AML enthusiast working as AML investigator in Financial Intelligence Unit at Scotiabank. His area of interest includes complex investigations comprising of public private initiatives like human trafficking, organ trafficking, drug trafficking, unregistered money service businesses and cryptocurrency.
He graduated with Master of Applied Sciences degree from University of Toronto before started working as Fraud Analyst, Credit Cards at CIBC. During his time at CIBC, Prat worked on mitigating loss to bank by providing real time support in the reporting of fraudulent transactions and assisting clients with initiating dispute claims through visa and mastercard.
Each of the selected Associates demonstrated many of the essential components of a financial crime professional: commitment, dedication to continuous learning, and - by their application - quality report writing. The 12 Associates come from a range of backgrounds and previous financial crime/compliance roles, but they all have in common the desire to learn and become more seasoned and well-rounded in their knowledge of financial crime.
While reviewing the applications to the program and selecting who would become Associates, it was clear that a lot of thought, time, and effort had been put into the applications and answering the key questions posed.
There were many quality applications submitted but what made the successful 12 applications really stand out was the commitment to continuous learning and demonstrating how the TWELVE Program would not only benefit them and their career plans, but also how they would give back to the community. Whether it was to assist in transitioning from a retail banking role to full time financial crime, or moving from policy to investigations, each associate made it clear why they deserved their place on the program.
I have no doubt that I and the Fellows will learn as much from them as they hopefully will from us.
Dr Ian Messenger