In common with many global banks, Deutsche Bank has come under the AML regulatory spotlight of late. And then, on 4 January 2017, it was announced that Deutsche’s Global Head of Anti-Financial Crime, an Englishman called Peter Hazlewood, was quitting after only six months in the job, although staying with Deutsche. According to Der Spiegel (warning: it’s in German), Mr Hazlewood was well qualified for the role, having been a senior detective inspector in the Hong Kong police force and then working in an AML capacity at HSBC, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and Development Bank of Singapore. But he had a strained relationship (what my Google translation charmingly renders as “atmospheric disturbances”) with Sylvie Matherat, the Board member responsible for compliance, to whom Mr Hazlewood reported. Other sources suggest that Mr Hazlewood was unhappy with the staffing levels of his AML team, and that he thought the compliance team should be more assertive. Whatever the details of this particular situation, it will sound familiar to many working in the AML community: once again, despite all the fine Board-level words about fighting financial crime, AML is under-resourced, under-appreciated and, whenever possible, undercut.
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Another good read
I hate money laundering 
Very true. Most institutions are so reactive, when they get a fine, they over-resource!
Tank you for your comment, Eva, and welcome to the blog. Compliance is the un-glamorous side of finance, only getting a look-in when things go wrong, it seems.
Best wishes from Susan
Sue, Your conclusion is true and so sad. I can’t even count offhand how many similar situations I’m aware of. Critically, situations such as the one described receive zero attention from the very regulators that approve the Compliance professionals. Much as I don’t want to be negative, I truly believe absolutely nothing will change regarding dynamic highly-skilled professionals, until such time that regulators address Compliance Officer internal transfers such as that described and wrongdoing inside the finance industry, is punished to the full extent of the law and executives with ultimate accountability, go to prison.
Eva, that’s also true, although, sadly, in all my years in Compliance and AML, the only over resourcing I witnessed, was with individuals that were deemed to be malleable or were not adequately trained or were not strong or independent thinkers…as necessary for the proper execution of the role.
Hello and welcome to the blog. I think you have made a very important point here, about compliance people needing to be strong, independent thinkers. I know that the stereotype is of the dynamic, determined (perhaps bullying?) sales staff riding roughshod over the meek, non-confrontational compliance people is – sadly – often true. What we need is quiet determination: “we need to do it this way because the law demands it and because we want to be ethical in our dealings with clients and with the rest of the financial sector”.
Best wishes from Susan