chapter-benelux-20240530 - Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists

ACSS Benelux Chapter

Navigating Trade Embargoes-A Practical Approach

Hosted by     

KBC Group
17 Grand Place 1000 Bruxelles Belgium
Thursday, May 30

17:30 PM – 20:30 PM CEST

Speakers
  • Alina Nedea, EU Commission
  • Michael Fernandez-Bertier, Ethics & Compliance
  • Marie Tanghe, KBC Group
  • Ruben Vanhove, KBC Group

Moderated by: Marie Tanghe, KBC Head of Group Compliance Team & Ruben Vanhove, KBC Compliance Advisor

Event Information

In a time of increasing global trade complexities, understanding the nuances of trade embargoes becomes essential for companies and financial institutions alike.

Join us for an enlightening evening hosted by KBC, when we dive into practical cases of trade embargoes, with a particular focus on the pivotal interactions between companies engaged in international trade and banks, from a trade embargo perspective.

This event is a must-attend for professionals navigating the landscape of international trade laws, banking regulations, and embargo constraints. We have assembled a stellar panel that will provide you with the insights and knowledge needed to maneuver through the challenges posed by trade embargoes.

Agenda:

17:30 – 17:45: Registration & Welcome Refreshments

17:45 – 18:00: Welcome from Michael Wittenburg—KBC General Manager Financial Crime Management, Introduction from Anna Sayre—ACSS, and ACSS BENELUX Chapter Update by the Chapter Chair Maarten Rijssenbeek

18:00 – 19:30: Interactive Dialogue with our Expert Panel:

  • Alina Nedea, Head of Sanctions Unit, EU Commission: Updates and Perspectives: the new EU reporting obligation under Art. 5r of EU Council Regulation 833/2014
  • Michael Fernandez-Bertier, Partner at Ethics & Compliance: Legal and Regulatory Compliance for Export Control Professionals
  • Marie Tanghe, KBC Head of Group Embargo Team & Ruben Vanhove, KBC Compliance Advisor: Trade Embargoes-Discussing Practical Cases

19:30 – 20:30: Networking Opportunity over Drinks and Nibbles

 

Join us in an exciting location at KBC Gote to Grote Markt / Grand Place!

Members and first-time attendees of our ACSS BENELUX Chapter events join for free!

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights into trade embargoes and to network with peers facing similar compliance challenges.

 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Attend the Event

Speakers

Michael Fernandez-Bertier

Founding Partner

Ethics & Compliance
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Michael Fernandez-Bertier is the founding partner of Ethics & Compliance consulting firm.

He is also a member of the New York bar, a former attorney-at-law at the Brussels bar and a board member of Transparency International Belgium.

Michael specializes in ethics, legal and regulatory compliance, with a particular emphasis on financial and economic sanctions – and on financial crime prevention compliance and white collar crime generally.

He regularly speaks at conferences and trainings and regularly publishes in specialised press, law journals and manuscripts in Europe.

Michael was also a lecturer in the Tax Management Executive Master Program at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, in the UCLouvain-ULB-ULiège interuniversity Certificate in White Collar Crime and in the UCLouvain-USL-B Certificate in (Re)inventing Your Compliance Programme.

Among other scientific activities, Michael has acted as editorial co-director of the Business Criminal Law Manuals and a member of the editorial board of several law reviews (including the Belgian Criminal Law and Criminology Review, the Belgian Business Criminal Law Review and the European Journal on Compliance and Integrity).

He is also a member of the CRID&P, CRIDES (UCLouvain) University research groups and a PhD candidate in Law at Université catholique de Louvain.

Alina Nedea

Head of Sanctions Unit | DG FISMA

European Commission
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Alina is Head of the Commission’s Sanctions Unit, within the Directorate-General in charge of Financial Services. She works on a wide range of EU sanctions issues, from their shaping and negotiation, to guidance on their practical implementation and monitoring their enforcement by Member States.

Alina’s Unit also leads on the EU’s resilience to extra-territorial sanctions of third countries, from U.S. measures against Iran and Cuba to China’s recent activity in the sanctions realm.

Having specialised in EU law in Paris, in her previous professional life Alina was a lawyer in a leading Spanish law firm, advising and representing clients in competition law; a member of the European Ombudsman’s legal team; and a lecturer in EU law in Spain and Germany. She is a member of the Barcelona Bar Association and continues to cooperate with academia in Belgium and to intervene in sanctions conferences in Europe and the US.

Marie Tanghe

Head of Group Embargo Team

KBC Group
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Marie Tanghe is a lawyer by training and a Certified Compliance Officer with a longstanding career in the banking sector.

Having passed through KBC ‘s Legal Department, Credit Department, abroad and in KBC’s subsidiaries, Marie has been dealing with sanctions and embargoes at KBC Group level since 2018. Her responsibilities as Head of KBC Group’s Embargo Team consist of policy making, Group steering, trainings, setting up of controls, managing incidents and liaising with both KBC’s Shared Services Center – where part of the embargo operations are executed – and its subsidiaries worldwide, in order to install a unified approach in terms of sanctions and embargo screening.

Her biggest challenges consist of staying on top of all evolutions in this fast-pacing landscape and getting them implemented timely and groupwide.

Ruben Vanhove

Group Compliance Advisor

KBC Group
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Ruben acts as group compliance advisor for KBC Group. His practice centers on the monitoring and implementation of sanctions measures for the group and its various subsidiaries and branches.

Starting his career in civil service, he worked on both merger control and investigations into anticompetitive practices at the Belgian Competition Authority. Before joining KBC, he also advised on a wide range of EU regulatory issues at the Belgian National Chamber of Notaries and the Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries.