Case Western Reserve University School of Law will add a new executive master’s degree program in financial integrity this coming fall. The degree is designed for students with at least three years of experience in financial integrity practice or a related field and classes will be held in New York City.
There has been an increasing demand by financial institutions and government agencies for anti-money laundering experts. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the amount of money laundered globally ranges from $800 billion to $2 trillion per year.
Regulatory demands for improved efforts to counter money laundering as well as the financing of terrorism and the evasion of financial sanctions are fueling the need for superior compliance experts. The new master’s program, which will cover each of these areas of study, will be the first offered in this field by a major research university.
The Executive Master of Arts in Financial Integrity (MAFI) will be a 16-month executive program. Courses will be team taught by academics and senior experts from government, the private sector and international organizations over a series of three-day weekends.
Professor Richard Gordon, associate director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center and director of the law school’s Financial Integrity Institute, will run the program.
A key part of the program is a supervised capstone research project that will address a current problem in the student’s practice to be presented to a panel of senior regulatory and law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C.
“We are bringing together some of the best practitioners and academics in the world to teach in this program,” said Gordon, a former senior counsel and senior financial sector expert for the International Monetary Fund.
The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists will be offering continuing credits for students in the new program. John Byrne, the association’s executive vice president and an anti-money laundering veteran, will also serve on the faculty.
“In today’s challenging compliance environment, the opportunities for advanced training and education has never been greater,” Byrne said. “The program will fill a major need and assist both the private and public sectors in combating money laundering and financial crime.”
