Head of Airbnb insurance to lead RIMS in 2020

06 January 2020

Laura Langone, head of insurance operations at online rental marketplace Airbnb since April 2019, is now president of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS).

The organization announced Thursday her 12-month appointment, effective immediately. She succeeds Gloria Brosius.

Daring to be different is key for risk professionals, the San Francisco-based Langone said in a statement from RIMS. Complacency isn’t something the industry can afford, she said. The time has come to embrace new technologies, different perspectives and different strategies.

“Stepping outside of our comfort zone can be intimidating, but those who are ready for the challenge will find greater opportunities to strengthen their risk programs and elevate their careers,” she said. “I am beyond excited to serve as RIMS 2020 president and to help ensure this global risk management community offers the tools, resources, and support that allows us all to dream bigger, aim higher and be different.”

Langone’s long career in risk management spans more than two decades. She has been a member of RIMS for 22 years and been on its board of directors since 2016. She has held a number of positions within the RIMS Silicon Valley Chapter, including serving as its president for four years. She has volunteered on several RIMS committees and chaired the group’s Enterprise Risk Management Committee in 2015.

Before joining Airbnb, she led insurance and risk management both at PayPal, an online payments company, and Juniper Networks, an international tech company that develops networking and cybersecurity products. She was a senior vice president at Marsh, according to her LinkedIn bio, and holds an MBA and a Juris Doctor legal degree.

Joining Langone as officers on the RIMS board are:

RIMS vice president Ellen R. Dunkin, a senior vice president, general counsel and chief risk officer at Amalgamated Life Insurance Company RIMS treasurer Patrick Sterling, a senior director of legendary people and risk at Texas Roadhouse; and RIMS secretary Jennifer Santiago, assistant vice president and university risk officer at Penn State.

Two new members joining the board are Tina Gardiner, who serves as manager of risk management services for York Region in Ontario, and Twane Duckworth, chief of risk management for the City of Jacksonville.

Brosius, who is director of risk management and insurance at Pinnacle Agriculture Distributions, will remain on the board as ex-officio.

Source: https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/

The new president of the European Commission vowes to introduce GDPR-style legislation to A.I.

03 January 2020
Knowledge Base

The new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has sworn to acquaint GDPR-style legislation to oversee artificial intelligence (AI). Ursula von der Leyen has made the following comments on this pledge by stating, “With the GDPR, we set the pattern for the world. We have to do the same with artificial intelligence. It is not about damming up the flow of data. It is about making rules that define how to handle data responsibly. For us, the protection of a person’s digital identity is the overriding priority.”
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Money Laundering in Canada: More unknowns than knowns

30 December 2019
Knowledge Base

by Ahsan Habib

Canada has become a well-known target, even a magnet, for money laundering. Ironically once a Canadian has the legal right of ownership, the law firmly protects that right. For that reason laundered money in Canada is much more valuable than dirty money elsewhere. And that is why money launderers are ready to pay well over asking for high-priced real estate, where multimillion-dollar blocks of cash can be cleansed in a single deal. The defining issue of our times must be who will stop these criminal predators from selling opioid, laundering the proceeds, buying up real estate and violating every conceivable aspect of Canadian sovereignty and the Criminal Code. Let’s go deeper into the ‘Rabbit Hole’….. Continue reading…

Beneficial ownership: assessment of recent developments and best practices

23 December 2019

by Marta Andreeva

The public grasped how big of a deal beneficial ownership is and how abuse of legal persons for money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) affects us all perhaps in 2015 with the Panama Papers scandal. For the compliance geeks and practitioners, this hasn’t perhaps come as such a surprise, albeit the scale of it has undoubtedly shocked everyone. The hype surrounding scandals that involve faces familiar from Hollywood or the political arena makes topics from the anti-money laundering (AML) world the news headlines.

The idea of transparency of company ownership, however, isn’t new. The global money-laundering watchdog – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the first international organisation to set up standards on beneficial ownership in 2003. In accordance with FATF Recommendation 24, countries should take measures to prevent the misuse of legal persons for ML/TF, and ensure that there is adequate, accurate and timely information on beneficial ownership and control of legal persons that can be obtained or accessed in a timely fashion by competent authorities. Continue reading…

The Basel Committee issues first version of its consolidated Basel Framework

21 December 2019

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has put in place its cemented Basel Framework. The framework unites all of the Basel Committee’s worldwide standards for the regulation and oversight of banks and details these on its website under a new section. In April 2019, the Committee formulated a draft variant of the solidified Basel Framework. In it, the standards were presented in a newly developed format that concentrated on revamping existing requirements, not on providing new prerequisites or changing the principles that were previously agreed upon and published by the Basel Committee. Continue reading…

FCA to ban mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers

18 December 2019
Knowledge Base

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently brought attention to the fact that it is going to disallow the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers. The ban by FCA is said to be introduced without consultation and is expected to go into effect on January 1 2020 for a duration of 12 months. As of recent, this is a restriction, but the FCA also intends to discuss the formation of lasting rules concerning the ban. Continue reading…

EBA updates its guidelines for the reporting of funding plans

12 December 2019

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes updated guidelines on harmonised definitions and templates for the reporting of funding plans. The changes include additional details of forecasted market based funding, alignment to FINREP reporting and additional proportionality for small and non-complex credit institutions. This update is the result of the experience gained through the EBA’s assessment of banks’ funding plans in the recent years.

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Building operational resilience: impact tolerances for important business services

11 December 2019
Knowledge Base

The Bank of England (the Bank), Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have today published a shared policy summary and co-ordinated consultation papers (CPs) on new requirements to strengthen operational resilience in the financial services sector. Building the operational resilience of firms and Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) is a shared priority for the three supervisory authorities. The co-ordinated CPs build on the concepts set out in the operational resilience Discussion Paper published by the authorities last year, addressing many of the proposed policy changes based on the responses we received. Continue reading…

Easing trade tensions lift sentiment

09 December 2019

An easing of US-China trade tensions in October triggered a risk-on phase in global financial markets. In September, risky asset prices across the globe stayed range-bound, supported by additional monetary accommodation in a context of subdued prospects for global activity. As sentiment shifted, stocks posted large gains in most markets but China, and credit spreads tightened. Term spreads in advanced economies (AEs) initially widened in line with the change in market sentiment. But their upward momentum petered out after a few weeks.

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