Main Takeaways
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Binance is committed to responsible growth and strong regulatory compliance, seeing it as a key component of protecting its users and the wider ecosystem.
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Throughout 2024, we have been expanding our compliance and risk teams, focusing on both the quantity and quality of hires to meet the demands of a maturing crypto sector.
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The addition of new leaders with extensive experience in financial crime prevention, compliance governance, special investigations, and more has strengthened Binance’s ability to navigate complex regulatory environments and support its compliance initiatives.
As global crypto adoption continues to ramp up, Binance stands at the forefront of the industry’s responsible growth, holding itself to the highest compliance standards to protect our 240 million users globally. This effort is backed by substantial investments and strategic hires. This year, we continued to attract top compliance talent to strengthen our already industry-leading team to match the demands and challenges of the rapidly maturing crypto sector.
We are on track to increase our compliance staff to 645 employees by the end of the year, which would mark a 34% growth between November 2023 and the end of 2024. As of today, we employ over 1,000 compliance staff and contractors. Additionally, our Risk team has nearly hit its 2024 goal, with 137 out of the planned 138 personnel already on board. And while we have quantitative goals, our primary focus remains on quality.
New Cohort of Leaders
We are committed to hiring world-class professionals with a record of excellence in crypto, traditional finance, FinTech, regulatory agencies, law enforcement, and other relevant areas. This year, we have made several key hires who bring a wealth of experience and expertise to Binance.
One of our notable hires this year is Todd McElduff, who joins us as the Enterprise Compliance Director. The Enterprise Compliance team is responsible for working with law enforcement to service requests and conduct special investigations, educating and training crime fighters, as well as key areas like transaction monitoring, market surveillance, and sanctions compliance.
Todd brings 20 years of compliance experience with a focus on financial crimes in both traditional finance and fintech. His previous roles include Senior Director, Head of Global Financial Crimes Oversight at PayPal and Executive Director, Head of Financial Crimes for Wealth Management and Banks at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for the execution of highly regulated financial crimes programs. He also held senior roles covering anti-money laundering (AML) and Internal Investigations at Morgan Stanley.
Lana Sinelnikova has recently joined Binance as Business Compliance and Enterprise Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA) Director. Lana’s team provides end-to-end compliance control and advice to various business units across their products’ lifecycle and develops compliance risk programs on both global and local levels.
Lana has over 13 years of experience in financial services regulatory compliance and over 18 years in financial crime prevention. Her previous roles include Head of Risk and Compliance and then Chief Compliance Officer for the UK at Kraken, and Head of Trading Product Compliance and Head of Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) at Revolut Trading. Lana’s comprehensive experience positions her perfectly to lead our business compliance and governance efforts.
Investigations and Audit Powerhouses
Binance operates across dozens of jurisdictions with varying regulatory landscapes, making strong regional expertise an invaluable component of the team’s unique mix of skills and backgrounds. Some of our new joiners bring unique country-level experience that will enhance our ability to navigate local regulations, ensure compliance, and effectively address region-specific challenges.
On the investigations side, Céline Inial, with over 18 years of experience in cybercrime investigations, has joined Binance as its Special Investigations Specialist for France. Previously, she was a Cryptocurrency Specialist Investigator and trainer with France’s Gendarmerie Nationale.
Caner Akyürek, who has joined Binance as its Special Investigations Specialist for Turkey, brings 18 years of operational experience in senior roles with the Turkish National Police and Europol.
Pauline Chan is Binance’s Compliance Specialist for Regulatory Audit and Exam in the Global Audit Issue Management team. Her role focuses on regulatory and audit issues management and closure validation. Pauline is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) in England and Wales. She has 19 years of experience in financial services and banking with a focus on financial crime risk management and issue validation. Her previous roles include Senior Manager in Wealth and Private Banking Compliance and Senior Quality Assurance and Sustainability Manager at the Remediation Management Office in the CEO Office at HSBC Hong Kong where she provided governance support, and Assistant Vice President of the Global Financial Crime Compliance Testing at J.P. Morgan where she led the financial crime-related reviews for APAC.
Final Thoughts
Discussing the evolution of Binance’s compliance efforts, Noah Perlman, our Chief Compliance Officer, observed: “We recently achieved our 20th global regulatory milestone, which is a testament to our efforts and commitment to working with regulators and industry partners and ensuring sustainable growth of the crypto industry. These efforts are supported by our robust compliance program that is comparable to financial institutions, and our leading team of digital-asset crime fighters who are keeping the ecosystem safe and ensuring that Binance remains a trusted and secure platform for all of our users.”
As we continue to strengthen our compliance capabilities, strategic hires will help us navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and support the responsible growth of the cryptocurrency industry.
Further Reading
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Steve Christie Announced as Binance Deputy Chief Compliance Officer
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Noah Perlman: Building a Culture of Compliance at Binance
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Binance Appoints Grant Thornton Singapore as Global Accounting and Tax Advisor
