CAFC brings agentic AI financial crime conference to New York

The Coalition Against Financial Crime will host its Agentic AI in Financial Crime Conference in New York on Sept. 10 at St. John’s University’s Manhattan campus, drawing leaders from major banks, card networks and Big Tech financial teams. The event comes as institutions race to govern autonomous AI in AML, fraud and sanctions work before regulators and criminals push faster.

Why it matters: - New York is home to many of the banks, broker-dealers and payments platforms now trying to use agentic AI in financial crime detection. - Financial institutions are under pressure to deploy AI in AML, fraud, sanctions and transaction monitoring without creating new compliance, model risk or audit problems. - Criminals are using the same technology to scale fraud and automate attacks. - The conference is aimed at compliance officers, auditors and risk executives who will have to defend how AI is governed.

What happened: - The Coalition Against Financial Crime will host the Agentic AI in Financial Crime Conference in New York on Sept. 10, 2026. - The event will take place at St. John’s University’s Manhattan Campus. - CAFC is bringing the conference to the country’s largest financial center two days after a first stop in Chicago. - The New York program will feature leaders from Google, Meta, X, Capital One and Morgan Stanley.

The details: - Speakers will include a global custody bank’s chief audit executive, a major card network’s AML platform lead, and compliance officers from brokerages, payments companies and Big Tech financial arms. - Sessions will focus on where AI is already delivering measurable value and where hype is ahead of reality. - The program will address what effective AI governance and model risk management should look like as systems become more autonomous. - Sessions will examine how institutions can evaluate, select and implement AI vendors without adding compliance, operational or regulatory risk. - Speakers will also cover what it takes to build AI-enabled financial crime programs that are explainable, auditable, defensible and able to withstand regulatory scrutiny. - John C. Calderon, founder and chair of CAFC, said New York’s financial institutions are among those closest to agentic AI adoption and that the room will help define a new standard before external pressure does. - Robert Williams, identified as a sanctions director, said CAFC’s conferences have been among the best he has attended in more than 20 years and expects Sept. 10 to be no different. - Flagright returns as platinum sponsor. - Gold sponsors include SRA Consulting, AML RightSource, Sumsub, ComplyAdvantage, Philo4Thought, Solytics Partners and WorkFusion, a UiPath company. - CAFC’s Chicago conference on Sept. 8, 2026, convened AML and compliance leaders from Block, Northern Trust, U.S. Bank, BMO and Charles Schwab, among others. - CAFC connects financial institutions, compliance and risk professionals, law enforcement and technology providers to strengthen the industry’s response to financial crime. - CAFC also offers certifications and practitioner networks, including the Certified AI Practitioner in Financial Crime credential. - More information is available at CAFC. - CAFC’s LinkedIn page is available at the organization’s social media page.

Between the lines: - The New York stop underscores how quickly agentic AI has moved from a technology discussion to an operating-risk issue for financial firms. - The sponsor list suggests broad commercial interest in AI governance, compliance tooling and financial crime use cases. - The timing, just after Chicago, signals CAFC is building a multi-city forum around the same risk and policy questions.

What's next: - CAFC’s New York conference will convene on Sept. 10, following the Chicago session on Sept. 8. - The conversations are likely to shape how firms frame AI oversight before regulators, examiners and criminal actors force faster decisions. - Financial institutions will continue weighing whether their AI controls can keep pace with the systems they are deploying.