Anet van Schijndel

Anet van Schijndel, Financial investigator to the Dutch Police. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today in the run-up to the Leaders in Finance AML event on the 2nd of October. Could you start by introducing yourself?

My name is Anet van Schijndel, and I work for the Dutch Police Force as a financial investigator. In this role, I conduct investigations into organized crime groups, legal entities and persons, with a particular focus on anti-money laundering and fraud.

Before this, I worked at the Dutch Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance. There, I was involved in financial legislation and regulatory oversight, which gave me a strong foundation for the work I do today.

Over the years, you’ve seen many different aspects of the AML ecosystem. In your view, what has been the most positive development in the AML landscape over the past five to ten years?

If you look at the AML ecosystem, we are all part of a chain – the financial sector, supervisors, legislators, criminal investigation authorities, and also the gatekeepers. And gatekeepers are not only financial institutions but also non-financial actors. Together, we form this chain.

What has really improved in recent years is the collective mindset. We now recognize more clearly that each of us has a role to play in the chain, and cooperation has become much stronger. Of course, this cooperation always takes place within the boundaries of the law. We have strict privacy and data protection legislation that governs what information can be shared and how. But even within those limits, I see much better collaboration today than in the past. Not only on a micro level, while investigating organized crime groups for instance, but also within the context of the larger system, addressing phenomena together in order to protect our ecosystem from fraudulent activities and money laundering.

That cooperation is essential, because as a financial investigator I am at the very end of the chain. In that position, it’s relatively easy to identify what went wrong – fraud, money laundering, or gaps in the system. But it is far more effective to work together with other institutions earlier in the chain. That way, we can close the tap before problems escalate and prevent obvious cases of money laundering from happening in the first place. This shift towards collaboration is, in my view, one of the most important improvements we’ve seen.

Could you name a specific achievement in the field of AML that you are particularly proud of – either personally or on behalf of your organization?

There are a few cases I’m proud of, though it’s difficult to go into specific details. In general, I take pride in the way we’ve been able to work closely with both gatekeepers and government institutions in supervision and detection. What matters to me is that we’ve not only achieved results behind the scenes, but we’ve also been able to show those successes of our joint efforts publicly, including through the media.

We’ve deliberately sought attention in the media, especially with gatekeepers, because I think it’s important to demonstrate that what we do together really makes a difference. I often hear from AML analysts that their work feels like reporting into a “black box” – they don’t know whether anything happens after they submit their analyses or report unusual transactions. But the truth is, their work does make an impact, even if they don’t always see the direct results. Every analysis, every report, contributes to the wider chain of efforts to prevent and combat money laundering or it could even be an important missing link in our financial investigation. I believe it’s crucial to highlight those successes and show that everyone involved plays an important role.

That really confirms what you mentioned earlier – that cooperation within the AML ecosystem has improved dramatically over the years. You also spoke about greater visibility to society, with more successes being highlighted in the news and media. Do you think this is leading to a broader shift in society’s perception already, or is that something we’re likely to see unfold in the coming years?

Yes, I think there has been a shift. In political debates, there is now increasing attention on organized crime as a whole, and within that, on financial crime specifically. Financial crime has always been a central element of organized crime because these groups generate large sums of money. To make use of that money, they need to launder it and for that, they have to commit fraud. I think an important part of this debate is how to effectively combat it, how public and private partners that make up this chain, this ecosystem, can work together. This is a difficult political debate as we are confronted with a conflict of interests here: privacy and data protection, anti-money laundering, and commercial interests and the reduction of regulatory burdens.

You’ve mentioned a few successes and improvements over the past years. Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest challenges in the next five years and beyond?

I think it’s essential that we stay on track with developments, which are happening so fast. When we look at money laundering – and our efforts to prevent it – we have to recognize that money today is increasingly digital and money flows are international. Large sums can easily be moved abroad in digital form, often to countries where we have very little authority to request or access the information we need or to seize assets.

If we really want to combat money laundering effectively, legislation and practice must keep pace with the methods that criminal organisations are already using. At the moment, they are often one step ahead, adapting more quickly than regulators, supervisors, gatekeepers and law enforcement authorities.

That’s why improving international cooperation is so important. We need a more level playing field at the global level – not just within Europe. As I mentioned, money flows easily across borders, and unless we have stronger tools and faster ways of working together, we will always be reacting too slowly.

I’d like to ask you about the skills needed for AML-professionals. Over the past years, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people entering this field. By current estimates, there are around 13,000 people working in KYC-related jobs.

Of course, you work in a highly skilled team that investigates financial crime and organized crime groups. From the perspective of the police, what skills do you think will be absolutely essential for AML-professionals in the coming years?

I might be a bit old-school, but what I find most valuable in AML-professionals are strong analytical skills – people who can really dig into transactions and connect the dots when their role allows them to. In my own work, the most useful reports are often the ones that don’t look suspicious at first glance. But when you take a step back, analyze them more in depth, and link them to other transactions or companies, patterns start to emerge. Suddenly, what seemed ordinary can look quite odd.

The obvious transactions that everyone knows must be reported are often not the ones that matter most in a criminal investigation – we already see those. What really helps is when someone notices the less obvious cases, where something just feels off. If you can articulate why it’s odd after analyzing it properly, that’s incredibly valuable.

So, to me, the key qualities are strong analytical skills and the drive to dig deeper. Those are the things that make the biggest difference.

The Leaders in Finance AML event on the 2nd of October will feature a range of speakers, including KYC leaders from several Dutch financial institutions. I think the audience will be very eager to hear your perspective. But let me turn the question around: what do you personally hope to gain from participating in this event?

For me personally, the main value of the event will be gaining better context about the financial sector – understanding what the current dilemmas and developments are from the perspective of the gatekeepers. We work on the same themes and ultimately share the same goal of combating money laundering and preventing it, but we approach the issue from very different angles.

That’s why I’m particularly curious to hear what is keeping them occupied at the moment, and what they see as the most pressing challenges and developments. It’s also an opportunity to strengthen my own knowledge and, importantly, to improve the cooperation that is absolutely essential in this field.

Thank you, Anet van Schijndel, for taking the time to speak with us. We are very much looking forward to your contribution.

Looking forward to it.