Marianne

Integrity supervision officer

Financial and economic crime

“Money laundering is one of the types of financial and economic crime that we focus on in the integrity supervision division. Over the past few years, various financial institutions have had to pay fines of up to hundreds of millions of euros due to negligence in preventing money laundering by their customers. We assess whether banks, insurers and payment institutions take all legally required measures to prevent involvement in money laundering or the financing of terrorism.

Real-world significance

Prior to joining, I had no idea that integrity supervision was also one of DNB's responsibilities. I discovered this unique aspect of the bank's work while on short-term placements at DNB after completing my degree in administrative law. I find integrity supervision fascinating because of the subject matter and the societal significance of our work. Crimes such as money laundering are very real and present dangers to society. The same applies to the financing of terrorism. It is very rewarding to know that the work you are doing is helping to put an end to money laundering and terrorism by zeroing in on the core of illicit financial flows.

In addition, I am very pleased with our working methods. We always start an investigation with desk research prior to site visits. Once on location, we conduct a number of interviews and we assess policies, procedures, customer files and the associated transactions. I visit all kinds of institutions, from major corporate banks to small money transfer offices. Well-developed conversation skills are vitally important in my work. As a supervisor, I must be strict and decisive, while also fostering constructive dialogue. Supervisory meetings are therefore far more challenging and fascinating than I had initially thought.

 The legal framework is static, whereas the situations we encounter are very fluid.

Self-confidence

I took training courses at DNB to hone my conversation skills, but I learned even more from my more experienced colleagues. You always conduct interviews together with a colleague from DNB. I joined in these interviews from the very beginning. At first I was apprehensive, but now I am far more self-confident. One of the great things about DNB is that everyone takes the time to invest in you, both personally and professionally. ‘Go ahead and give it a try,’ they would say, 'and we'll take over if you run into any trouble.’ At DNB you feel encouraged to step outside your comfort zone, to learn and to improve every day.

Working with the Prosecution Service

As a supervisor, I regularly detect breaches of legislation and statutory shortcomings. I must often lay down the law, as it were, and we regularly take formal enforcement measures. To this end, we work together with the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, the police and the Public Prosecution Service. Fortunately, these agencies do not always have to get involved. Sometimes a brief letter to the institution outlining the points for improvement is all it takes to get them to mend their ways.

In the four years that I've been working here, I have learned a tremendous amount about how institutions approach their customer due diligence and transaction monitoring. However, we also have teams in our division that focus specifically on the integrity risks of cryptos, that analyse vast quantities of integrity data or that prepare policy aimed at preventing money laundering or terrorist financing. There is no end to what you can learn at DNB.”

 

 

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