date
EVENTS
2020
ILCC Financial Services Event
10 February 2026 at 17:00:00
14 Bd Royal, 2449 Ville-Haute Luxembourg
The Effectiveness, Burden and Unintended Consequences of AML – The Way Forward
Viewed From a Better Regulation Perspective, are current approaches to AML/CFT, including KYC, Fit for Purpose?
Money laundering is a serious crime that has many victims and governments must address it. It involves the proceeds of crime: people smuggling and human trafficking, sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, corruption, fraud, theft, environmental crime, tax crime, and many others. In the current approach, a major proportion of enforcement is “outsourced” to the private sector, via a compliance model. Currently, the global costs of compliance are estimated to be in the range of $180 – 250 billion.
Anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, including enforcement, by banks and others obliged entities, have also, however, triggered major negative unintended social and economic consequences. While this compliance-led approach does act as a disincentive to attempts to launder money, banks and other obliged entities bear real-world unintended costs and increased risks of failure to comply. At the same time, reportedly less than 1% of illicit laundered funds are being recovered. It seems that questions must be raised about the effectiveness of the current methods.
Please join us to hear a variety of perspectives on this important issue.
Richard Meads (Business Decisions Ltd.) has worked with various Brussels think tanks on regulatory impact assessment (RIA) of EU legislation. He was part of the original team that successfully advocated for its introduction via the Amsterdam Treaty. Since 1995, he has also contributed to the development of the OECD’s global Better Regulation policy, including requirements for regulators to consider risk-risk set out in 2012. He specialises in Better Regulation, regulatory effectiveness/efficiency and the use of ex ante and ex post evaluations. He also works to highlight occurrence of risk-risk in regulation. Risk-risk is an established concept whereby regulation designed to mitigate one risk inadvertently creates new ones.
Programme
18.00 Registration
18.30 Welcome and Introduction by ILCC Chairman, Joe Huggard
18.35 Keynote Speaker
Richard Meads, Business Decisions Limited
19.00 Contributions and comments from panellists
• Brian Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, Banking and Payments Federation Ireland and former minister in Irish Government
• Yann Power, Independent Director, Governance & Compliance Coach in the Fund Industry and member of various ILA & ALFI working groups
• Jerry Grbic, CEO of the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL).
19.30 Panel discussion and exchanges
19.50 Questions from the floor
20.10 Moderator’s summation
20.15 Conclusion and networking cocktail
Date
February 10th, 2026
Location
Auditorium, Banque de Luxembourg,
14, Bd Royal, 2449 Ville-Haute Luxembourg
Registration
There is no charge for admission but for security reasons, prior registration necessary via this link:
https://forms.gle/YX1NZp6iBgbxQE9u9
The venue is courtesy of the Banque de Luxembourg.
The cocktail is being sponsored by The Huggard Consulting Group.
event report
Luxembourg, 11 February 2026: The Ireland Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce (ILCC) yesterday hosted a High-Level Financial Services Event at the Banque de Luxembourg, bringing together more than 100 senior professionals from the banking, financial services, and regulatory communities to examine the effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT), and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulation.
The event featured an expert panel comprising Richard Meads, Director of Business Decisions Limited; Brian Hayes, Chief Executive Officer of the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland and former Irish Government Minister; Jerry Gribic, Chief Executive Officer of the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association; and Yann Power, Governance and Compliance Specialist. Together, they explored the real-world impact of AML/CFT frameworks on financial crime prevention, regulatory compliance, innovation, and financial inclusion. The discussion was moderated by Joseph Huggard, Chairman of the ILCC.
Speakers highlighted that money laundering remains a major global challenge, with illicit financial flows estimated to exceed 2% of global GDP and linked to serious crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, and terrorism. While governments have a strong mandate to address these threats, the panel emphasized that current regulatory approaches may not be delivering optimal results.
A key theme was the unprecedented regulatory model that places extensive compliance and information-gathering responsibilities on private sector institutions. Financial firms now bear substantial legal and reputational risks, including fines exceeding USD 1 billion, while incurring estimated global compliance costs of more than USD 180 billion annually. Despite this, it was noted that less than 1% of illicit funds are recovered worldwide, raising concerns about the efficiency and impact of current systems.
Panellists also warned of unintended consequences, including:
• De-banking of low-value or high-risk customers
• Barriers for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses
• Reduced access to regulated financial services for vulnerable groups
• Constraints on innovation in financial services
• New criminal opportunities, including AI-driven fraud, deepfake extortion, and illicit lending networks
The event concluded that current AML/CFT and KYC measures require a critical reassessment, with a focus on improving effectiveness, minimizing negative externalities, and ensuring better alignment between government objectives and private sector incentives. Participants agreed on the importance of formal analysis into systemic deficiencies, greater awareness of emerging criminal threats, and more efficient use of compliance resources to maximize societal benefit.
A full report of the event may be found here:
https://www.huggardconsulting.com/ILCC Financial Services Event.pdf
Detailed discussion document with supporting research is also available:
https://www.huggardconsulting.com/AML Discussion Document Nov 2025.pdf
