Workshop: Sanctions Compliance in a Shifting Global Landscape

This training session will explore the evolving nature of sanctions risk, offering participants a structured overview of emerging threats, complex enforcement expectations, and practical tools for effective oversight and institutional response. Designed for financial institutions, supervisors, policy officials, and FIU representatives, the session focuses on identifying patterns of evasion, adapting to geopolitical shifts, and implementing credible, risk-based practices.

Key themes covered:

• Sanctions in context
  A concise introduction to the role of sanctions in international finance, and why Kazakhstan’s clean record is an increasingly valuable strategic asset.
• A complex and ever-changing landscape
  Sanctions regimes are expanding beyond static designations to encompass behaviours, sectors, and technologies. The session will examine how this is reshaping risk management.
• Evolving and emerging typologies
  From front companies and crypto payments to maritime evasion and parallel financial systems, we will explore the typologies shaping the new compliance challenge.
• Interpretation
  An overview of regulatory grey areas, such as ownership, control, and facilitation, and the growing importance of discretion, judgement, and legal nuance.
• Targeted Sanctions Guidance for companies operating in Central Asia – Focusing on existing sector-specific guidance and compliance expectations for companies operating in, among others,  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
• Behaviour vs Breach
  Why firms are increasingly expected to detect intent, not just incidents. We will discuss how regulators are focusing on behavioural risk, not only breaches of law.
• Data, Technology and Screening
  A practical look at screening tools, the limitations of list-based compliance, and the growing role of data integration and machine learning.
• Compliance Tools
  From governance and escalation frameworks to red flags and playbooks, this segment explores what good looks like in the current environment.
• Challenges for Supervisors and Policymakers
  We will close with a frank discussion of the supervisory challenges, including how to assess controls for indirect risk, and what it means to stay ahead of a threat that is evolving by design.

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the real-world nature of sanctions risk and the practical steps jurisdictions and firms can take to remain credible and resilient in a shifting global environment.

• Offline session
• Q&A session
• Certificate
• Coffee-break

Federica Taccogna

Federica is an internationally recognised expert in financial crime, sanctions compliance, and regulatory effectiveness, with over two decades of experience advising governments, regulators, and financial institutions across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. At Squire Patton Boggs she co-leads the Regulatory and Economic Crimes consulting practice, specialist consulting advisory practice that supports public authorities and private firms in navigating regulatory risk, enforcement exposure, and emerging threats in financial crime.

Her work spans the full regulatory lifecycle, from the design of supervisory strategies and legislative frameworks through to hands-on implementation, training, and enforcement. She has worked extensively with national regulators, supporting them in building capacity, preparing for FATF assessments, and strengthening financial crime oversight in response to international pressure. She regularly trains FATF assessors and engages with FATF-style regional bodies on both technical and strategic matters.

Federica has carried out hundreds of regulatory supervision, compliance inspections, and enforcement investigations on behalf of regulators worldwide. This has included leading complex, on-site assessments of sanctions and financial crime controls in banks, fintechs, virtual asset service providers, and gaming/gambling operators.

She is also a trusted adviser to private sector firms navigating increasingly complex global sanctions requirements. Her clients range from multinational banks to crypto exchanges, investment funds, and state-owned enterprises. She has helped these institutions assess risk exposure, improve governance, remediate control weaknesses, and respond effectively to regulatory scrutiny and enforcement action.

Her particular focus is on the areas of sanctions risk that remain legally grey or operationally ambiguous: the interpretation of indirect ownership and control, the facilitation of restricted activity through third parties, and the behavioural detection of evasion schemes. Her work draws on deep knowledge of both legal standards, and the methods actors use to circumvent them, often through trade, offshore vehicles, or digital infrastructure.

She brings a distinctive blend of public sector insight and commercial pragmatism to the design and review of financial crime frameworks and insights have shaped national reforms, supervisory priorities, and institutional strategies across several jurisdictions.