April 2005. The Financial Crime Summit. A big hit, by Richard King

"This was one of the best S&T conference we have run at St. Paul" says Steve Rawsthorn, VP ES7000 Sales & Marketing, S&T EMEA. "It achieved a number of key points for me, it was highly topical, business focussed, attracted directors and senior managers from top tier 1 financial organisations, for many this was their first exposure to Unisys and St. Paul and it was the first event we have run with a strategic ISV partner".

Yes, the hot topic of Financial Crime certainly hit the spot with 48 customers from many of Europe's leading Financial Services organisations meeting in St. Paul to attend the Financial Crime Summit organised in conjunction with one of our strategic business intelligence partner's NetEconomy. This was a truly international summit with 20 countries represented. Customers included JP Morgan Chase, Zurich, Dexia, ING, Credit Agricole, Barclays, Prudential, Delta Lloyd, Abbey, ABN Amro, AIB, Telkom Austria, National Bank of Greece, SEB, DNB, Societe Generale, Securities & Exchange Commission and Eeska Pojisovna.

During the 2 day summit delegates heard from some of the top subject experts in Financial Crime including the European Commission, United Nations, ACAMS, domain analysts, leading academics in criminal law and criminology. Of particular note were Dr. Raj Persaud (Consultant Psychiatrist and TV / Radio personality) and Jeffrey Robinson (International best selling author) who gave us some scary and sometimes amusing insights into many real life cases. Amanda Hughes from Abbey (a joint Unisys / NetEconomy customer) also addressed delegates during the customer panel.

“This event has enabled a new level of business engagement and the alignment of NetEconomy’s ERASE solution fits perfectly with our own Real Time Infrastructure and Blueprinting approaches” says Paulo Freire, Director, RTI Solutions, S&T, EMEA. NetEcomony’s Henry Barenholz, VP Sales & Marketing, NetEconomy added “From our side we were also very pleased with the event and the cooperation with Unisys”.

A press briefing was held in parallel to the summit which attracted 7 journalists from a number of leading weekly and monthly publications including International Banking Systems and Banking Technology in the UK, Banking & Finance in the Netherlands, La Gaceta and eWeek from Spain and Jornal de Negocios and Expresso from Portugal. We expect positive coverage from each of these publications.

Customer comments speak louder than any. Here is a selection of typical feedback - there are many more:

• You could not have done any better (SEB, UK)
• Incredible atmosphere, perfect care and devotion to detail (Hebrosbank, Bulgaria)
• A very useful summit – particularly on mind setting and understanding the solution to combating Financial Fraud is a mix of technique and technology (F. Van Lanschot Bankiers, Luxembourg)
• Staff exceptional – one of the best conferences I have attended (JP Morgan Chase, UK)
• Best conference I have attended (Barclays, UK)

“The spirit of partnership to make this event a success was clear from Day 1. It just goes to show that with the right partner, solution and compelling agenda we can further elevate our game" says Richard King, event sponsor and Partner Marketing Manager, S&T EMEA. In addition says Richard "Cathy Gimello (Seminar Manager) and the team at St. Paul executed a very professional job and did us all extremely proud".

We intend to capitalise on the high degree of interest in this subject with NetEconomy. Watch this space for upcoming dates.

Article written by  Richard King Unisys Business Development Manager, Business Intelligence, S&T, EMEA.