Elucidate, a leading financial crime risk platform, has announced that David Lewis will be joining its advisory board. Lewis’ appointment follows his move from Executive Secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to global head of anti-money laundering (AML) advisory at Kroll.
This was driven by his recognition that governments and financial institutions are in desperate need of more practical help to better implement global standards and have a greater impact on financial crime.
By joining Elucidate, Lewis will help set a global standard for measuring financial crime risk that can be easily implemented by financial institutions and regulators. Doing so will help overcome the challenges the FATF, governments and regulators have faced for decades - the failure to convert policy into effective action.
He will provide advice to Elucidate in the evolution of its financial crime standard and modeling and will chair a Delphi panel of industry experts to monitor Elucidate’s FinCrime Index (EFI).
He previously served as Executive Secretary of the FATF and was senior advisor to the G20 from 2015 to 2022, leading the FATF Secretariat and bringing together governments from around the world to tackle money laundering, financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Lewis has repeatedly highlighted the need for more effective action to stop financial crime, as evidenced in published FATF mutual evaluation reports. He is a strong advocate for global reform, calling for greater commitment and investment by national authorities, greater collaboration between the public and private sector, and smarter use of technology to better prevent and disrupt financial crime.
Founded by CEO Shane Riedel and CTO Filipe Garcia, Elucidate has rated the financial crime risk of over 20,000 organizations since February 2018. Employing advanced data analysis technology, Elucidate’s FinCrime Index EFI enables pricing of financial crime risk, creating a global industry baseline for measuring financial crime risk and determining risk appetites.
Lewis’s appointment follows Elucidate’s launch of a new product in January 2022 which accurately prices financial crime risk. With Standard Chartered Bank acting as the first customer, the product creates a shared framework to assess and monitor for improvements to ultimately reduce exposure to financial crime. The framework also ensures transactions that pose higher financial crime risks will be subjected to higher fees.
Shane Riedel, CEO of Elucidate, commented on the appointment: “David is internationally renowned for his work advancing preemptive and reactive measures to counter all aspects of financial crime. His experience across the public and private sectors has proven invaluable in understanding how public-private partnerships can be implemented to fight all aspects of financial crime regardless of jurisdiction.
For too long, the financial services sector has suffered from the lack of a clear and effective framework that can be used as a benchmark. David’s participation helps Elucidate fulfill its mission to set a global standard for measuring financial crime risk.
Lewis commented: “The challenge today is the absence of practical solutions to effectively mitigate financial crime risk and to protect people, our environment and economies from the very real harms fueled by money laundering.”
That’s why I am pleased to be part of Elucidate’s advisory board. Its exciting application of technology and use of data to score and price the risk of financial crimes completely transforms the way financial institutions will make decisions. Elucidate has huge potential to make a real difference in the global fight against financial crime by setting a global standard.
“I look forward to working closely with Shane and the wider Elucidate team in what is set to be an important period of growth for the company.”