Here I am, back from my holiday, refreshed and raring to go. I will admit that I was feeling rather jaded before my break, and wondering whether AML – or more specifically, AML and I – had run its course. As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my workshops was rather poorly attended. And then there was the damnation with faint praise. Someone contacted me, asking for information, and observed that they had been given my name by a colleague who found my services “mildly helpful”. After a quarter-century of living and breathing AML, this rather rocked me back on my heels. But I have decided to be amused by it, and have instructed my husband to put it on my gravestone: Here lies Susan Grossey – beloved wife and mildly helpful.
However, there is often a grain of truth in such comments, and while I was away I started to wonder whether I am indeed spending my AML energy where it can do the most good. Some time ago I stopped tweeting in the AML community (I still tweet in my other persona, as an author of historical financial crime novels – @ConstablePlank). Do you miss my AML tweets? I stopped partly because I was told that in the regulated community very few people are allowed to access Twitter at work, so it seemed a bit pointless to target a market that was not allowed to read me. But should I tweet again?
And on my company website, I have a Newsroom. Every day I check numerous news sources and put links to relevant stories on this page. I have quite specific requirements – it can’t be rumour/gossip, and I prefer to report convictions rather than charges, although I will make an exception for well-known names – and it does take about thirty minutes a day to check all relevant stories and select the ones to link. Do you even know about the Newsroom? Is it worth doing?
With your feedback, who knows? By this time next year, I might have bumped up my rating to a dizzying “rather helpful”.
I hate money laundering 
No no no no no
You cant give up and you are very very very very useful!!
The worst thing about this profession is being in the dark or “missing” something, and your communication enables us to keep up to date. With time stretched very thinly, its hard to regularly go to websites etc to keep up to date. Yours is one very concise place to pick up anything missed.
Your courses are brilliant, and very relevant. You take the time and effort to check in with the local regulator etc to ensure you give us the most up to date news. Again invaluable.
Plus you make me laugh and in this day and age, that’s a HUGE plus.
Twitter, agreed we don’t look at this at all as its blocked here.
Website – have ot be honest, I didn’t know. I rarely use your website. Something which hits our in boxes are far more likely to be read than going to a website. As mentioned above, hard to find time in a day to go website trauling.
Nikki
Nicolla J Tanguy
Managing Director – Bank J. Safra Sarasin Ltd, Guernsey Branch
Telephone +44 (0)1481 761122, internal: #44 1122
Aw, I’m blushing, Nikki! Seriously, it is good to know that what I do is worthwhile – I sometimes think that, in the same way I don’t notice that my house decor is now seriously dated, I won’t spot that I myself have been superseded by a Google alert or web-bot of some sort. Many thanks for taking the time to respond – extremely useful to know which services you use and which you don’t.
Susan, Please do not give up!
Your training has always been first class, informative and up to date on current affairs. They never feel like you are sat hearing the same old thing, they always feel fresh.
I really enjoy the light hearted approach that your Blogs take, to bring a little fun to the AML world is always well received! But I can’t get twitter at work and don’t really use it so I prefer your blogs.
I did not know about your newsroom as I subscribe to your blog, having that attached to the blog would be amazing as if it hits my inbox I am more likely to read it.
Sarah Garrard Int (Dip) TEP | Manager, Group Trust Projects
Butterfield Trust (Guernsey) Limited | PO Box 25 | Regency Court | St Peter Port | Guernsey, Channel Islands
D: 44 1481 705232 | T: 44 1481 711521 | F: 44 1481 728665
http://www.butterfieldgroup.com
Many thanks, Sarah. That’s a good idea about linking the Newsroom to the blog – I’ll pass it over to my IT department for investigation. (The IT department is me, so let’s hope I can manage it!) Thank you for your kind words about the training – I do try to make it as relevant and topical as I can, so I’m delighted that it seems that way.
I read ALL your newsletters and your courses are excellent – relevant and stimulating. Please don’t give up either of this.
I rarely read your Newsroom (although I have it bookmarked) and I access Twitter as little as possible. I would be more inclined to follow links from your Newsletter than Twitter.
“Mildly helpful”? The mind boggles.
Isabel
Damning with faint praise… Although it has given my husband a good laugh.
We ask all staff to sign up to your email as we feel its important to be aware of the things you write about. We even re-email them when we feel it is particualry relevant. Please don’t stop.
Fiona
Guernsey
That’s really good to know, Fiona. I know that there are probably much whizzier ways of getting information out there these days, but I’m something of a plodder and I stick with what I know, and if staff are getting the info in some form, then it’s working. Many thanks.
Hi Susan
As a compliance and financial crime consultant I always recommend using your newsroom for EDD research, PEP profiling etc. It beats the competition (including KYC360) into a cocked hat. Very (as opposed to mildly….) useful and interesting, probably because you are intuitive as to what to include. I confess I don’t tweet, though!
Keep blogging, you brighten my day.
Best regards, also from Jane and her Guernsey book club.
Mik Underdown
Hi Mik
Thank you for this – very interesting to know that you use the Newsroom. You’re right about the intuitive side of it: I know immediately whether a story belongs in the Newsroom, or the blog, or a workshop – I can just tell! And I’ll confess I don’t miss the tweeting – it always felt distracting and frenetic.
And please tell Jane that work continues apace on “Plank 6”!
Best wishes from Susan
Hi Susan,
I regularly read the emails from your blog and also use the Newsroom for selecting relevant cases / media articles to circulate to staff. Not a Twitter user though.
Keep up the good work, please!
Hi Mandy, welcome to the blog and thank you for your comment. Delighted to hear that the Newsroom is of use – I do choose very carefully the stories to include (nothing gossip-y, and only things that will really matter to AML-ers). And thank you for the encouragement!
Interesting chain of replies and being from the ‘other’ Island I can immediately see where you have spent most of your time and based upon the feedback I can see why!! May I suggest giving some thought to re-vamping (modernising!!) your Thinking About Crime website to make it look fresher, more in line with current website design might help draw people in and hold their attention and get them to subscribe to your email. By the way were you aware that JIBs has to all intent and purposes been sold to BPP (a retrograde step in my view) and that ultimately BPP want to take all training online once they have wiped out of bought out the opposing face to face training operations. I have always enjoyed your training so I do hope that you continue to receive “the train us please” calls. As we have commented on before I’m not at all sure that many/any will come from here!………………Haven’t ever really figured that one out but it seems to be a fact of CPD life here..
You’re absolutely right about the website, CDWOS – it does look dated. The trouble is that I am my own IT department, and it’s finding time for these things… But I am going to look at updating the template to make it a bit more inviting to modern sensibilities.
And how interesting to hear about BPP. They have certainly been around for years and, as you say, very much concentrate on their online training provision. Here’s hoping people realise what is happening and continue to support the face-to-face providers.
As for differences between Guernsey and Jersey, well, I learned many years ago simply not to comment!!