MLRO / Financial Crime Leader of the Year
This award recognises an exceptional MLRO or senior financial crime leader who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, influence and impact over the past 12-18 months. Judges will look for individuals who have successfully navigated financial crime risks, regulatory challenges and organisational change, while strengthening their organisation's approach to AML, sanctions, fraud prevention or wider financial crime compliance.
The winning individual will be able to demonstrate not only technical expertise, but also how their leadership has driven positive outcomes for their organisation, colleagues, customers and stakeholders.
Eligibility
- Open to MLROs, Deputy MLROs, Heads of Financial Crime, Heads of AML, Financial Crime Directors and equivalent senior professionals working in-house.
- Entries for this award must be nominated by a manager, stakeholder or colleague – self-nominations will not be accepted.
- Entries must reflect achievements within the last 12-18 months.
- Nominees must be based in or operating within Europe.
- Advisory firms, technology providers, outsourced service providers are not eligible.
Criteria
- Your submission needs to respond to the 3 criteria sections: Spirit, Approach and Outcome.
- You will be awarded a maximum of 10 points per section (30 points in total).
- Questions are suggested in each criteria section. These are prompts to help you think about the evidence that will help judges to best assess your entry. You do not need to address all questions, please use them as a guide.
- The 4th criteria section Validation is optional and is your opportunity to provide supporting documents to further demonstrate to judges why your submission should win. You can submit up to 3 supporting documents.
Spirit: Tell us about the leadership context: the individual, their role and environment
You may wish to include:
- Their role, responsibilities and leadership remit over the last 12-18 months
- Significant regulatory, business or operational challenges they have faced
- Emerging risks, market developments or organisational changes they have responded to
- Why their leadership has been particularly important during this period
- Any notable professional achievements, recognition or contributions to the financial crime profession
Approach: Demonstrate how the individual has shown exceptional leadership and delivered meaningful change
You may wish to include examples of how they have:
- Led improvements in AML, sanctions, fraud prevention, transaction monitoring or wider financial crime controls
- Driven innovation, transformation or operational effectiveness
- Influenced senior leaders, boards, regulators or key stakeholders
- Built a strong culture of compliance and accountability
- Developed, inspired or empowered colleagues and teams
- Strengthened governance, risk management or decision-making processes
- Navigated significant challenges while maintaining high standards of compliance and integrity
Outcome: Show the outcomes and value created through the individual's leadership
Evidence may include:
- Improvements to financial crime risk management or compliance outcomes
- Positive business, operational or customer impacts
- Enhanced regulatory relationships or successful regulatory outcomes
- Measurable improvements in processes, controls, efficiency or effectiveness
- Cultural or organisational change resulting from their leadership
- Long-term benefits or legacy created for the organisation
- Both quantitative and qualitative evidence are welcome.
Validation (Optional): Support your submission with additional evidence to help judges understand why this individual deserves recognition
This may include:
- Up to three testimonials (maximum 100 words each) from colleagues, leaders, regulators, business partners or other stakeholders
- Examples of recognition, endorsements or awards
- Supporting documents that provide further evidence of impact and achievement
- You may submit up to three supporting documents.