We sat down with Haik from AML Incubator about anti-money laundering, and how businesses and governments can adjust to fight against constantly evolving threats due to fraud.
Your name is interesting. You hear the term “incubator” used for technology and business development incubators, but not for anti-money laundering. What is AML Incubator and what’s in the name?
HK: That’s a great question and a common one, too. There are some similarities between incubating or accelerating certain processes and operations, but we differ from a startup accelerator in that our end goals and operations are unique to the industry.
For example, our end goal is compliance facilitation at a reasonable and practical level, especially for those businesses that struggle with the constantly evolving and extensive regulatory requirements. Our “incubation” process happens departmentally. We assess the compliance infrastructure of our clients, be they startups or established businesses, and either recommend or rebuild. This includes everything from single engagement auditor opportunities to fractional compliance departments that are completely outsourced.
So instead of incubating companies, we incubate compliance departments. While some clients eventually bring their programs in-house, many enjoy keeping compliance outsourced with us—allowing their in-house teams to focus on growth instead.
What is Canada’s biggest blind spot regarding fraud? If you could redesign Canada’s approach to financial intelligence, what would you do differently?
HK: Canada’s biggest blind spot is enforcement. Prosecution rarely happens. This creates a stigma for people and investors, both locally and globally, that financial crime is allowed to run rampant here.
Financial intelligence is too compartmentalized among agencies and jurisdictions, with little collaboration, adding to the system’s susceptibility to more complex financial crime that happens across borders. De-siloing law enforcement and sharing more actionable financial intelligence with them would help to make prosecution of financial crime easier. Fintechs, MSBs, and crypto companies would all be involved—these are the companies that have the intel that sometimes never gets to law enforcement in time.
Furthermore, public/private partnerships must be real. Right now, it’s all lip service. If financial crime is ever going to be successful and prevented, it needs to be under the umbrella of national security—with the coordination, resources, and accountability that comes with it.
How is fraud evolving in the digital economy? Are companies and regulators able to keep up?
HK: Fraud is evolving at an incredible pace and it is different now than a few years ago. New tools like AI, deep fakes, and synthetic identities make scams more scalable and easier to hide from detection. In addition, cryptocurrency adds to the mix, using mixers, privacy coins, and cross-chain swaps to hide further illegitimate flows. We’re also seeing an increase in mule accounts—people expose themselves on social media, get recruited—and scams tied to real-time payment systems.
Regulatory agencies and businesses try to keep up—with AI detection, behavioral detection, biometric log-in—but there’s always a gap between the newest fraud techniques and the developments in prevention.
We often only realize fraud has happened after the fact. That’s why real-time monitoring, adaptive controls, and proactive assessments are essential. It’s impossible to get to 100% success in preventing fraud. However, utilizing the right technology and combined efforts lowers fraud exposure, and response time is significantly faster.
What’s next for AML Incubator?
HK: We’re going international and expanding access to compliance, especially for growing fintechs and mid-size financials.
People often think of compliance as a negative cost center, a barrier, but when done right, compliance is the opposite; it’s the requirement that fosters growth and trust.
We’re adding two new services to offer even more:
- AMLI Legal: Legal compliance courtesy of our in-house counsel and partner lawyers. We understand that regulatory compliance and legal actions in the commercial space often intersect, so we’ll have all legal bases covered.
- Fractional CISO services: Offered by our sister company, Bitpulse Technologies. Startups and growing companies should have access to seasoned-level security compliance executives without the big-ticket price.
As we grow, we’ll be adding more AOM and compliance-related services—especially for those with multi-jurisdictional efforts or those approaching audits and licensure.
We recently launched another service called AMLI Labs where, for select startups, we are poised to accept equity in lieu of payment for services rendered. More info can be found here: https://amlincubator.com/amli-labs
We’re not just growing; we’re trying to grow access to enterprise-level compliance so that all legitimate businesses have a clear playbook for safe, ethical expansion.
To learn more about Haik and the work AML Incubator is doing to build smarter, scalable compliance programs, visit https://amlincubator.com/.
