Quick thoughts from the IIB annual conference

Although we will put together a short article on the 30th annual IIB annual conference for our Mazars financial services newsletter, I thought I'd share a few snippets (paraphrased) of the two-day conference from the various speakers that stuck with me. First and foremost, congratulations to the IIB team for putting together an excellent conference with great speakers/panelists.

Mark Van Der Weide (general counsel of the Federal Reserve Board):

The Federal Reserve is all for globalization.

Fundamentally, we [the Federal Reserve] believe that our framework is fair to foreign banks [this statement was in response to a question about foreign banks feeling "picked on"]. After the financial crisis, the view was that foreign banks had an advantage over U.S. banks, and any actions by the Federal Reserve after the crisis was based on a goal to level the playing field.

We continue to aim for harmonization of the regulatory regimes.

H. Rodgin Cohen (Senior Chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; otherwise known as the "Trauma Surgeon of Wall Street):

BSA/AML is where foreign banks (and some domestic banks) can get into trouble, with the most collateral damage.

A siloed approach to BSA/AML is nonsensical and only assists with terrorist financing. A more collaborative approach would lead to better detection and prevention of issues.

Artificial intelligence can help!

Congressman Josh Gottheimer (House Financial Services Committee):

I'm a centrist, and I think that's where most of America is. Today we are seeing more views on the right and the herbal tea party.