2021 - A Year in Review

As 2021 draws to a close I can’t help but reflect on the year; where it began, the achievements throughout the year, and the final hours.

2021 was the year that the TWELVE Financial Crime Program was launched. 

What started several years ago as an idea to create a development program that addressed both the knowledge and skills observed as being essential elements of the modern financial crime professional and continued as a side-project for many years, and came to life during the early days of the COVID-19 in 2020 (as Working From Home provided me a much smaller commute and give me the time to work on the program), was finally launched on 1st January 2021 to both a Canadian and International audience. The sheer volume of interest led to the creation of an International program.

Over the course of this year, it became increasing clear to me (and validating) that a program I’d spent years devising, and the putting into practice, was providing benefit to those on the program. As the months went by, I’d see how participants were developing in their current roles, identifying areas of financial crime that they wanted to move into (and taking steps to make it happen), as well as success in promotion exercises and interviews for new jobs. 

Of course this was a team effort and the program could not have succeeded in 2021 without the time and commitment of the industry thought-leaders who offered to serve as mentors to the participants. To this day, I am still taken aback by the pedigree of senior leader who wanted to be a part of this journey. 

And now we get to the end of 2021 with 28 participants from around the world successfully completing the program. Many more enrolled in the Short Course which focused exclusively on knowledge, and there were several collaborations with Seneca College working with college students looking to enter the world of financial crime. 

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to those industry thought-leaders who gave their time to mentor the participants on the program and the associates who stayed the course over the 12 months of the program. 

What does 2022 look like? There is a new cohort of associates who have signed on for the 12 month program, industry thought-leaders who have signed up for another year, and who knows what else? 12 months is a long time during a pandemic…

Happy New Year!

Dr Ian Messenger