James Wu

James is an entrepreneurial individual with a strong interest in Enterprise Non-Financial Risk (NFR) Management specifically within the sphere of Financial Crime Compliance (FCC). To date, he has acquired a broad-based AML/CFT experience in the capacity of 1LOD, 2LOD, and external consultant covering numerous banking business lines including Retail, Private Banking, Corporate (SME & Wholesale), Financial Institutions (Correspondent Banking), and Non-Bank Financial Institutions.

Throughout his tenure within the FCC space, James has undertaken numerous regulatory change management projects both as a Business Analyst and PMO Lead (Compliance Policies and Procedures Uplifting; Large Scale Regulatory and KYC Remediation; Digital Transformation and Software Platform Implementation; and Compliance BPR) where he has been able to fulfil all stipulated key deliverables via either waterfall or agile methodologies based upon the nature of the project.

On the regulatory technical front, James is also accomplished in both international (notably FATF Recommendations; Wolfsberg Group Standards; US Patriot Act; US, EU and UN Sanctions; and BCBS Guidelines) and national AML/CFT standards spanning Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, UK and several Western European countries within the EU bloc (notably MAS 626; HK AMLO; PBOC AML Supervision Measures 2014; UK MLR 2017; and 6AMLD).

Looking ahead, he strives to be the T-shaped specialist in his areas of responsibility and seeks to be change agent in breaking down the silos between Business, Compliance, Information Technology and Operations in achieving organisational competitive advantage amid the current VUCA environment. Categorically, he has recently taken an acute interest in exploring how Regulatory Technology (RegTech) solutions can provide for substantial and sustainable business compliance outcomes for the various financial services industry players, especially against the current backdrop of burgeoning regulatory changes coupled with the proliferation of big data and advancement in the related infrastructures.

As part of the deliberation to achieve foregoing professional goals, he is currently pursuing ICA Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance & Graduate Diploma for Compliance in Financial Services. On a longer horizon standpoint, he will be undertaking MSc in Financial Crime and Compliance in Digital Societies to further understand the latest ML/TF typologies and emerging threats and opportunities within FCC, and in turn contribute to the thought leadership domain.