Daniel Bisson

Daniel Bisson from LexisNexis, thank you for taking the time to speak with us ahead of the Leaders in Finance AML event on October 2nd. Could you start by introducing yourself?

My name is Daniel Bisson, and I work for LexisNexis Risk Solutions as part of the market planning function. My focus is on financial crime compliance across the Netherlands as well as the UK and Ireland, and the Nordics.  I’ve been with LexisNexis Risk Solutions for about four years in various strategic roles.

I see my remit as helping customers solve their AML challenges. That can mean supporting existing clients with the issues they are facing right now, or looking ahead to predict future challenges they may encounter in the AML space. My role is about working closely with those customers to understand their needs and helping them find the right solutions.

I’m asking because I’m curious – in your view, what has been the most positive shift in the AML ecosystem over the past five years?

I see one of the most positive shifts in our field as the move away from compliance as a box-ticking exercise and towards risk-based approaches. This change has had two major effects. First, it re-engages professionals in the sector, encouraging them to take risks seriously, to assess the landscape, and to design appropriate responses – rather than just proving they’ve done the minimum. That makes the results more effective, but also makes the work more enjoyable. And while that may sound like a small point, I think enjoying the work is an underrated but essential part of doing it well.

The second major improvement is collaboration. In recent years, we’ve seen stronger cooperation between individual entities, as well as the development of public-private partnerships and cross-border collaboration. These trends represent a real step forward in how we collectively approach the challenges in this space.

Many people would agree with that. You’ve worked for institutions in the Netherlands, as well as in the UK and the Nordics, so you bring a lot of international experience. What are some of the things you’re really proud of?

I’m really proud to work for an organisation like LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which helps customers around the world address serious threats. It’s important to remember that although work in the AML space can sometimes appear technical or even a little dry – essentially about preventing suspicious money from changing hands – behind that money are very harmful predicate crimes. What motivates me is knowing that by helping to stop the flow of illicit funds, we are also reducing the risk of those crimes happening in the first place.

What also stands out for me is that LexisNexis is the organisation people turn to when it really matters. It’s not about ticking boxes or completing compliance exercises; it’s about addressing risks properly and effectively. At those critical moments, you need a partner with the weight of experience and expertise to tackle the problem thoroughly – and that’s the role we play.

You mentioned earlier that prevention is an important part of your work, and I’d love to hear more about how that looks in practice. Could you perhaps share an example or a case that illustrates how this prevention side works?

Sure — one example that really illustrates how prevention works in practice is Project Blood Orange. Project Blood Orange is a collaboration between United for Wildlife, KPMG the South African Revenue Service, and anti-poaching law enforcement aimed at tackling rhino poaching, particularly in Southern Africa. LexisNexis Risk Solutions has publicly supported the work via the provision data insight and intelligence tools. These tools are used to integrate and analyse data from multiple sources — financial transactions, shipping records, adverse media, enforcement data — to help map suspicious flows, detect anomalous patterns, and provide evidence to support law enforcement. As a result of this project rhino poaching in Kruger National Park dropped by 46%, and trafficers from Malasia, Malawi and Cambodia were prosecuted.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest challenges?

One of the biggest challenges I hear from our customers – and one I believe will only grow – is the clash between two forms of regulation that are becoming increasingly prominent. On the one hand, you have anti-money laundering rules and compliance requirements, which rely heavily on sharing detailed information about individuals and building clear profiles to assess risk. On the other hand, you have strict privacy regulations, such as GDPR, which often directly limit that kind of data sharing. Navigating this tension, especially in the context of cross-border collaboration, will be a significant challenge over the next five years. The key question is how we can better harmonize these rules so that they don’t work against each other.

Another challenge is the rise of AI-driven criminality. Fraud is a good example. While fraud isn’t always considered part of AML, I believe it should be. Once fraud is committed, the proceeds need to be moved around, which brings it directly into the AML space. AI is increasingly being used in fraudulent schemes, making them more sophisticated and harder to detect. Deepfakes and falsified IDs are clear risks that are already emerging. At the same time, AI also presents opportunities. The same tools that criminals use can also be harnessed to strengthen prevention and detection. Balancing those risks and opportunities will be crucial for the sector going forward.

You mentioned that LexisNexis is active all around the world, and you spoke about international cooperation and the harmonization of rules – which is quite a challenge. What do you see as the greatest opportunities for international cooperation?

Most of the biggest threats we face are cross-border in nature: trafficking of drugs, humans, and animals. These predicate crimes require strong international cooperation if we want to respond effectively. I hesitate to call them “opportunities,” because they are very real threats. But they do represent areas where international cooperation can make a real difference. This cooperation can take many forms – between governments, NGOs, and institutions across borders. It can involve sharing information to help build legal cases against perpetrators, or coordinating enforcement actions.

Even before that stage, though, there is a need to harmonize regulations across jurisdictions. Doing so would make it easier to identify risks earlier, to catch more cases in the first phase. That means sharing typologies of crimes and information about individuals who raise red flags across borders and between institutions. Both at the preventive stage – through harmonized regulations and shared risk information – and at the later stage of case-building, international cooperation can make our response much more effective.

I’d like to ask you about the dynamic between AML-professionals working in KYC and technological innovation, particularly AI. How do you think that dynamic will evolve?

I believe the real risk with any new technology doesn’t come from the technology itself, but from how people implement it. Take AI, for example. The danger lies in overstating its capabilities, relying on it too heavily, and only realising the limits once something goes wrong.

That said, the technology is incredibly powerful. We’re already offering customers AI-driven solutions, and the transformative effect is clear. It relieves people from repetitive, time-consuming tasks and allows them to focus on prevention – on stopping real harm – and on making a meaningful positive impact.

The greatest benefit is that it creates space for professionals to concentrate on what truly matters. But there is also a risk: removing the human element entirely. We’re not at a point where that’s possible, nor should it be the goal. Ultimately, it’s about striking the right balance. If we manage that, the positive impact of AI in this field can grow exponentially. 

What draws you personally to the fight against financial crime?

As we discussed earlier, unless you move away from the pure ones and zeros – the dollars and cents shifting across systems – it can all seem a little abstract. But when you remember the predicate crimes that funded these transactions, you see the real-world harm and the real-world threats that we are working to address. That, for me, is the key to focusing on this work.

I’ve been active in this field for about four or five years now, before that, I was an external financial auditor, working in a regulatory environment that was, of course, different but still within the broader compliance space. So in a sense, I’ve always operated in this kind of world. But I have to say, the difference between external financial auditing – where the goal is to ensure a public entity’s profit and loss accounts are reported accurately – and the risks attached to anti-money laundering is night and day. In this field, the issues are so much more visceral and real. That’s why I believe this work is so important, even if it often gets obscured behind the technicalities and the digital “ones and zeros.”

I think this is something many people can relate to. A lot of the people we speak with are very intrinsically motivated to do this work, because it directly affects real life and has a tangible impact.

Absolutely, and thats why the shift away from a purely “tick-box” approach to compliance toward a risk-based approach is so exciting. This allows people to really engage with the issues and address the actual threats. That makes the work not only more rewarding for everyone involved, but also much more effective.

The Leaders in Finance AML event will take place on October 2, just a few weeks from now, and you’ll also be attending. What are you hoping to get out of this event?

I think it’s a great opportunity to take the temperature of the AML space and hear from the wide range of actors involved. You get new perspectives and fresh opinions on how to tackle challenges, and it’s a chance for me to share my own views, get feedback, and see where I might have blind spots. Sometimes I discover that what I’ve been thinking about really resonates with others, and from there we can start to build on those ideas together. For me, events like this are the spark for new approaches and innovations, and that spirit of collaboration – as we discussed earlier – is absolutely essential. Where else would that collaboration happen if not starting at events like this?

Wonderful. Thank you, Daniel, for taking the time to talk with us today.