Senior bankers overseeing risk, compliance, and fraud from leading UAE financial institutions—those on the front lines of combating financial crime—came together for the MEA Finance and BioCatch Roundtable: Fighting Financial Crime in the UAE – Tackling Fraud and Money Laundering. The event took place on Wednesday, 23rd April 2025, at the One&Only Za’abeel Hotel, Dubai.
Full coverage of the roundtable discussion will be on the next issue of MEA Finance Magazine.
We were honored to be joined by the following executives:
| Abbas Choudhary | Fraud and Investigation | Ajman bank |
| Adrian Tan | Chief Risk Officer | Zand |
| Allen Gopinath | Head of Fraud Prevention | Al Etihad Payments |
| Amit Goel | Head – Operational & Fraud Risk | Ajman bank |
| Anvar Sadath Muhammed | Manager, Compliance (MLRO) | Emirates Development Bank |
| Chris Wray | Vice President – Compliance , CIB / Global Asset Management / Private Banking | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) |
| Ghaus Ikram | Head of Financial Crime Compliance/MLRO | United Arab Bank |
| Gurcharan Chhabra | Executive Vice President, Head of Fraud Prevention & Intelligence I CXC-Fraud Prevention & Intelligence Division | Mashreq |
| Haitham Khalaf | Manager, Fraud Prevention and Investigation | Al Masraf |
| Jason Haines | Head of Compliance – Investment Banking Group | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) |
| Jiju Philip | Head – Operational Risk, IC, BCM | RAKBANK |
| Jiten Nagda | Head- Fraud Risk Management | Al Maryah Community Bank |
| Joan Lazaro | Vice President, AML Advisory-TBML | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) |
| Mark Newfield | Group Head of Compliance Systems | Emirates NBD |
| Mohamad El Khalil | Director, Prudential Supervision | Dubai Financial Services Authority |
| Muhammad Iqtadar Ahmed Sheikh | Head of Compliance | Ajman bank |
| Pradeep Kumar | Head of Fraud Risk Management | Commercial Bank of Dubai |
| Praveen Kumar Naidu | Regional Head of Fraud Corporate & Institutional Banking | HSBC |
| Sadhiq Abdulkarim | Assistant Vice President | First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) |
| Sylvana Dane | Executive Manager – Group Fraud Risk Management | Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank |
| Wissam Abed | Sr. Manager – Global Compliance Financial Intelligence Unit, Office of Law Enforcement and External Partnerships |
Western Union |
| Gareth Williams | Pre-Sales Leader, EMEA | BioCatch |
| Gemma Staite | VP of Global Advisory | BioCatch |
| Zohar Elnekave | Regional VP – Italy & MEA | BioCatch |
| Ali Godrej Patel | Regional Sales Manager | BioCatch |
