Reengineering Sanctions Compliance: Agentic AI and the Shift to Continuous Risk and Controls
Move beyond screening to find the risk that matters
Traditional sanctions compliance was built around list-based screening. But as evasion networks become more sophisticated, geopolitical risk moves faster and regulators focus increasingly on demonstrable effectiveness, financial institutions need to rethink what an effective sanctions program looks like.
In this on-demand webinar, Elizabeth Callan, Principal Strategic Advisor at SymphonyAI, examines what the FCA's 2026 sanctions assessment reveals about the state of sanctions compliance and how its findings align with longstanding OFAC expectations.
From weaknesses in sanctions screening and alert management to siloed risk assessments and the growing challenge of sanctions evasion, the session explores why screening alone is no longer enough.
Elizabeth looks at how financial institutions can evolve toward a more intelligence-led approach, using generative and agentic AI to enrich alerts, identify hidden risk, accelerate adjudication and continually feed new intelligence back into risk assessments and controls.
You'll also hear how AI can support sanctions evasion detection through network analysis and threat intelligence, improve name and entity matching, automate investigative work and help compliance teams prioritize genuine exposure rather than simply processing more alerts.
What you'll learn
Discover how financial institutions can:
- Strengthen sanctions screening calibration and assurance
- Improve alert management, prioritization and escalation
- Build more granular sanctions risk assessments
- Embed sanctions evasion typologies into monitoring and detection
- Use agentic AI to enrich alerts and accelerate adjudication
- Create feedback loops between threat intelligence, risk assessments and controls
- Improve the speed and consistency of sanctions breach reporting
Speaker
Elizabeth Callan
Principal Strategic Advisor, SymphonyAI Financial Services
Elizabeth Callan is a recognized leader in the fight against money laundering and financial crime with more than 25 years of experience across intelligence, law enforcement and the private sector. Her experience includes senior roles within the U.S. Department of the Treasury and DEA Special Operations Division, as well as leading investigations and sanctions advisory teams at global financial institutions.
Access the full webinar now
Sanctions programs are being asked to identify increasingly complex risks while demonstrating that controls work in practice.
Watch the webinar to learn how AI, threat intelligence and continuously adapting controls can help financial institutions move beyond static sanctions screening toward more effective, risk-driven sanctions compliance.
Related Resources:
A Convergent Standard for Sanctions Compliance (White paper)
Re-engineering the Risk-Based Approach: Agentic AI as the engine of continuous risk assessment & control calibration (White paper)
Agentic AI in financial services: From hype to governance
Compliance modernization – Why financial services can’t afford to stand still
The agentic moment in banking: Always-on Compliance in an autonomous AI era
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Elizabeth Callan is a recognized leader and innovator in the fightagainst money laundering and financial crime with 25 years of experience acrossintelligence, law enforcement, and the private sector. At SymphonyAI, she is atthe forefront of redefining the future of financial crime compliance and riskmanagement. She drives strategy and innovation, developing groundbreakingAI-led, intelligence-driven solutions that are transforming how globalinstitutions detect, disrupt, and prevent money laundering, sanctions evasion,and other sophisticated financial crimes. Her work is helping to shift theindustry approach from reactive, technical compliance to proactive, risk -aligned, and highly effective risk management. Prior to SymphonyAI, Elizabethserved in the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities. As a SeniorIntelligence Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Departmentof the Treasury, she shaped high-impact U.S. policy and enforcement actions —including Section 311 designations — while directly advising senior officialsacross the USG, including at OFAC and FinCEN, on critical threats and nationalsecurity strategies. She also served as Intelligence Liaison and Senior Advisorto the DEA’s Special Operations Division, where she led complex, large-scalemoney laundering investigations, enhanced intelligence collection efforts,trained law enforcement agents and analysts, and forged strong internationalpartnerships. In the private sector, Elizabeth has held leadership roles in financialinstitutions and consulting firms, where she built and managed investigationsteams, designed robust AML and sanctions programs, and developed riskmanagement strategies for complex products and services. A recognized subjectmatter expert, Elizabeth teaches AML and sanctions courses at the universitylevel. She holds a master's degree in economics and analytics and ACAMS’Advanced Certification in Financial Crimes Investigations (CAMS-FCI).