Event Information
- Event Type: Webinar
- Delivery Channel: Virtual
- Date: 16/11/2026 - 16/11/2026
- Duration: 1Hours
Event Description
Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) transparency has become one of the most critical pillars of modern financial‑crime compliance. Around the world, regulators are tightening disclosure requirements, expanding verification obligations, and increasing enforcement against institutions that fail to identify who truly owns or controls their customers.
In this high‑impact session, we will unpack the evolving global expectations around UBO identification, verification, and ongoing monitoring - with a focus on practical challenges faced by banks, DNFBPs, and regulated entities operating across complex ownership structures.
Specifically, this webinar will also address the key regulatory updates in Kuwait with regards to identifying the beneficiary. This comes after Kuwait has been grey listed by FATF, leading to regulators publishing new guidelines, to ensure companies have clear understanding with regards to regulatory requirements.
Participants will explore how criminals exploit layered corporate vehicles, trusts, nominee arrangements, and cross‑border structures to obscure control, and what effective compliance teams are doing to detect and disrupt these methods. The webinar will also highlight recent enforcement trends, regulatory reforms, and the growing role of technology in strengthening beneficial‑ownership transparency.
This session is designed for compliance officers, MLROs, regulators, auditors, and professionals responsible for customer due diligence, onboarding, and ongoing monitoring.
Learning objectives
Explain the regulatory purpose of UBO identification and how global standards (FATF, national registries, sector‑specific rules) shape disclosure and verification requirements.
Identify common ownership‑obscuring structures used to hide beneficial ownership, including layered entities, nominee arrangements, trusts, and cross‑border vehicles.
Apply effective methodologies for UBO identification and verification, including documentary evidence, risk‑based validation, and enhanced due diligence for complex structures.
Assess UBO‑related risks within customer onboarding and ongoing monitoring, and integrate these risks into enterprise‑wide AML/CFT frameworks.
Evaluate recent enforcement actions and supervisory expectations to understand how regulators measure effectiveness in beneficial‑ownership controls.
Strengthen internal governance and record‑keeping practices to ensure accurate, complete, and up‑to‑date beneficial‑ownership information across the customer lifecycle.
Implement technology‑enabled approaches (e.g., digital registries, automated ownership mapping, data‑matching tools) to improve transparency and reduce manual errors.
Design practical escalation and reporting procedures for cases involving opaque structures, suspected nominee arrangements, or inconsistencies in ownership declarations.
Expert Trainer
Hana Elsakka
Risk Advisory Manager, GRC Consulting
Hana has many years of professional experience in consulting, with a strong focus on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT), regulatory compliance, internal audit, risk management, and governance across the financial services sector.
She has extensive experience conducting AML/CFT reviews and testing engagements for clients operating across the investment, fintech, e-payment, and insurance sectors. Her experience includes assessing the design and effectiveness of AML/CFT frameworks, policies and procedures, customer due diligence and KYC controls, risk assessment methodologies, transaction monitoring practices, and overall compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
Hana has also supported clients in the development and enhancement of AML/CFT policies, procedures, risk assessments, and control frameworks, identifying compliance gaps and providing practical recommendations to strengthen financial crime risk management and regulatory compliance.
In addition, she has delivered AML/CFT training to employees across multiple e-payment and fintech companies, supporting organizations in strengthening staff awareness of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, regulatory obligations, and key preventive controls.
Beyond AML/CFT, Hana has significant experience delivering consulting services in internal audit, enterprise risk management, corporate governance, and policy and procedure development.
Hesham El Sakka
Managing Partner, GRC Consulting
Hesham is an audit and advisory professional with more than 31 years of experience in Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT), regulatory compliance, corporate governance, internal controls and internal audit. He has advised leading organisations across financial services, telecommunications, insurance, investment, real estate and construction, manufacturing, and engineering.
He has led numerous compliance and governance engagements in Kuwait, supporting Boards of Directors, executive management and control functions in strengthening their frameworks and aligning practices with regulatory requirements. As Partner-in-Charge of compliance engagements, he has provided strategic guidance and senior oversight on compliance frameworks, policies, procedures, governance arrangements and risk oversight.
His experience includes designing, implementing and reviewing internal controls, leading a major internal control project for a prominent Kuwaiti group, and delivering compliance and corporate governance engagements for STC and other telecommunications companies in Kuwait.
Walid Malhas
Head of Regulatory Compliance | AML/CTF & Financial Crime Prevention Leader
Walid Malhas is a compliance and financial crime executive with more than 25 years of experience spanning Big Four accounting firms and major banks. He has led Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) and compliance teams, strategies and operations at leading banks in Kuwait, with expertise in local and international regulatory requirements.
Alongside his executive experience, Walid develops and delivers tailored training for banks, investment firms, insurance providers and exchange companies. His areas of expertise include compliance, financial crime, fraud, internal audit, risk, corporate governance, FATCA and CRS. He has delivered programmes for Al Rajhi Bank Kuwait, Ahli United Bank Kuwait, Boubyan Bank and Doha Bank, and worked with the American University of Kuwait and Gulf University for Science and Technology.
Walid holds professional qualifications from ACAMS, ICA, GAFM, GCI, ACFE and CISI, and has completed Harvard Business School’s Leading Strategy Execution in Financial Services programme. He is also a certified Global Compliance Institute trainer in KYC and customer onboarding, AML/CTF, advanced AML investigations, international sanctions, regulatory compliance, and FATCA/CRS.
His training combines technical knowledge with practical experience, using case studies and real-world scenarios to help professionals apply regulatory requirements, strengthen controls and make informed decisions.