Plenitude, the niche consultancy firm specialising in Financial Crime Risk and Compliance, has appointed Shahmeem Purdasy as Senior Executive and General Counsel. In his new role, Shahmeem will provide strategic advice and transformation expertise to enable Plenitude’s clients to meet the challenges posed by the evolving Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) landscape, alongside supporting the execution of Plenitude’s growth plans. 

In a world of increasing regulation and heightened regulatory scrutiny, the requirement for organisations to meet legal and regulatory obligations has never been more important. This has become even more complex and time-consuming due to constantly changing laws and regulations, and an increase in enforcement actions. 

Plenitude works with a wide array of financial institutions including retail, commercial and investment banks, insurance companies and investment management firms across the UK and Europe, providing deep subject matter expertise, advisory and transformation services on some of the largest and most complex FCC initiatives in the industry. Plenitude is also firmly focused on augmenting its professional services offering with cloud-based subscription products that provide enhanced insight into the vast array of FCC laws, regulations, guidance and risk indicators.

Having worked in the financial crime sector for 20 years, Shahmeem has a wealth of public sector and industry experience. He has extensive knowledge of Financial Crime Compliance and its complex regulatory framework. Shahmeem has been a trusted advisor in HM Treasury and the Home Office, advising the UK Government on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the EU and the UK financial crime regimes. He was an architect of key money laundering, terrorist financing and country sanctions regulations, including the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations 2017, which created a more robust and risk-based approach to tackling financial crime. Shahmeem has worked in a variety of private sector roles and acted as a specialist counsel to Boards, compliance professionals and lawyers on financial crime advisory, supervisory and enforcement matters. He is actively involved in industry and Government workstreams that will deliver the UK’s Economic Crime Plan 2019-2022.

The appointment comes at a pivotal time for Plenitude, having doubled its team size in 2020 and further expanding its European footprint to meet the growing demand for its tailored services from leading financial institutions; and the formal launch of RegSight, its cloud-based FCC obligations register. 

Commenting on the announcement, Shahmeem Purdasy, said: "Effective Financial Crime Compliance is a key industry and UK Government priority. We have a real opportunity to strengthen our collective effort to address both the regulatory and social imperatives in combatting money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, bribery, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and market abuse.”

Purdasy added: “I am delighted to join Plenitude, such a forward-thinking firm with a highly respected reputation for providing clients with tailored and pragmatic support. I look forward to helping Plenitude to expand and nurture our client relationships across the financial services sector. By offering strategic advice and providing technical detail across the financial crime lifecycle, we will continue to help a wide-range of financial services clients to safely translate the complex regulatory framework into effective operational practices.”

Alan Paterson, Plenitude Managing Director, added: "We are delighted to appoint Shahmeem to our Senior Leadership Team. I am confident he will play a key role in executing our growth plans while providing our clients with first rate advice. The fact that we have been able to attract someone of Shahmeem’s calibre is a great endorsement of the strength of our services and growing reputation in the market place.  I am certain that his wealth of FCC and legal experience will prove invaluable as we scale to meet the increasing industry demand for our advisory, transformation and cloud-based subscription products.”