The discussion focuses on the role of enforcement in shaping behaviour across financial services, and how cultural reform is driven within firms. Tracey McDermott explains how regulators use enforcement to set expectations, while responsibility for cultural change remains with leadership inside organisations. Stephen Sanders adds a practitioner perspective on how firms respond to regulatory pressure and embed accountability.

The conversation also looks at where firms remain underprepared this year, including gaps in how culture is assessed, how conduct risk is managed across business lines, and how regulatory expectations are translated into day to day practices.

The episode brings together regulatory and industry perspectives on how enforcement, leadership, and internal culture interact in practice.
 

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:17 What Do Recent Enforcement Cases Tell Us About 2026

03:15 Is the Regulator–Firm Relationship Really a Partnership?

06:14 Why This Relationship Is Cyclical

12:33 The Limits of the Partnership

18: 23 What Compliance Leaders Do After an Enforcement Case Hits

22:34 Connecting the Dots in Compliance

28:35 What Firms Aren’t Ready For in 2026

36:47 AI, Legacy Systems & New Blind Spots

43:24 Rethinking the Three Lines of Defence

53:33 What Good Regulatory Dialogue Looks Like

57:49 Breaking Down Compliance Silos

1:03:43 Rethinking Suspicious Activity Reporting

1:08:26 The Shift from Human to Machine Oversight

1:15:53 The Reality of Regulatory Divergence

1:21:29 Global Standards Without a Global Regulator

1:24:39 Speed Round: Risk, AI & Regulation

Drawing on her experience on both sides of the regulatory divide, Tracey reflects on how misconduct emerges inside financial institutions, what regulators look for when things go wrong, and how banks can build stronger cultures of accountability.

The discussion covers the mortgage endowment scandal, LIBOR, the challenge of rebuilding trust in financial regulation, and the evolving role of compliance as data and AI reshape the industry.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
01:17 From Litigation to the Financial Regulator

04:29 The mortgage endowment mis-selling case

07:22 Rebuilding Trust in the Regulator

10:17 The Reality of Leading a Public Regulator

12:56 The role of boards in risk oversight

15:25 The Hidden Patterns Behind Financial Misconduct

18:05 Enforcement vs Culture in Financial Institutions

20:27 Why the LIBOR Scandal Changed Everything

22:47 Individual Accountability vs Systemic Failure

26:34 The Hardest Problems Finance Still Has

30:27 The Gap Between Regulation and Reality

32:00 Looking Back on a Career in Regulation and Banking

33:58 The Future of Compliance and the Role of AI

The conversation examines how resilience obligations extend through the supply chain, the role of certifications such as ISO 27001, ISO 42001 and SOC 2, and why accreditation and verification of those certifications matter. Corinna explains how financial institutions assess control and security across vendors and subcontractors, how critical and important suppliers are identified, and how proportionality is applied in practice.

They also discuss regulatory expectations under DORA, where responsibility remains with financial entities, and how technology providers are preparing through contractual frameworks, governance and supplier oversight. The episode concludes with a look at how firms assess vendor risk, manage subcontractors, and present resilience and assurance in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:15 Introduction: Off-Channel Communications in Finance

02:57 WhatsApp Fines & Regulatory Crackdowns

05:45 Data Privacy & End-to-End Encryption

08:09 AI, Analytics & Human Oversight

10:25 Explainability, Auditability & AI Risks

13:36 Certifications: ISO, SOC 2 & Trust Signals

16:51 DORA & Operational Resilience

18:34 Supply Chain and vendor risk

21:32 Certifications, Accreditation & Vendor Due Diligence

30:28 Cloud, Data Locality & Multi-Region Failover

37:55 Global Standards & Harmonisation Challenges

42:37 Product Vision – Analytics, Interoperability & Workflows

47:29 Identity, Trust & The Future of Communication

54:28 Outages, Geopolitics & Preparedness

59:09 Pen Testing, Red Teams & Cyber Defence
01:03:56 Closing: Practical Steps for Secure Communications

UKAS - United Kingdom Accreditation Service - https://www.ukas.com

UKAS Certcheck - https://certcheck.ukas.com

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) runs CHECK, and publishes a directory of assured CHECK providers - https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/schemes/check/find-an-assured-check-provider

CREST positions itself as an accreditation body for cyber security service providers and maintains a searchable member directory - https://www.crest-approved.org/members/

From hallucinations and explainability to hybrid lexicons, human-in-the-loop workflows, and the limits of agentic systems, Dean and Alan break down where AI delivers, where it fails, and why progress may be shifting from “jobs” to “tasks.”

They discuss the plateau of model quality, the risks of synthetic data polluting the internet, the economics of failed AI initiatives, and whether we’re chasing AGI for innovation or for the trophy. Along the way, they examine how UX, curation, and “AI seasoning” may hold the key to making AI actually useful, safe, and trustworthy.

It’s a conversation about technology, but also about ethics, governance, and what remains fundamentally human as automation scales.
 

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:11 Trusting AI: Where Do We Begin?

03:35 Explainability, Citations & Transparency

06:44 Regulators, Risk & 100% Data Coverage

08:13 Beyond Red Flags: Business Insights & Green Flags

11:14 The Limitations of Lexicons & Fuzzy Models

13:44 The Future Without Lexicons

15:22 Human in the Loop: Why It’s Not Going Anywhere

20:09 AGI: A Goal or a Distraction?

23:39 Big Tech, Valuations & the Trophy Problem

25:59 Apple, Trust & Risk

30:36 The AI Hype Cycle & ROI Reality

33:05 Radiologists, Tasks & Human Judgment

34:57 Chat Interfaces vs Better UX

40:31 When AI Gets Things Wrong 

44:58 The Future of Dashboards

47:29 AI in Small Doses 

A former SEC prosecutor and criminal barrister, Hemma shares her journey from enforcing rules to redefining how organizations build trust, integrity, and responsible growth.

Together, they discuss leadership, culture, and “the Office of Unlock” — Hemma’s approach to turning compliance from a function of control into a driver of ethical decision-making and innovation.

The discussion also explores how regulation, human behavior, and data governance are evolving in the age of AI, and what this means for the future of ethics and compliance in business.

Chapters:
 00:00 Intro
 01:11 Origins and Early Drive
 03:22 Building a Global Career
 06:17 Resilience and Purpose
 09:06 Decision-Making and the Brain
 12:21 Radical Empathy and Everyday Integrity
 20:34 The Office of Unlock
 29:27 Culture, Leadership, and Human Impact
 33:50 Vulnerability and Doing Hard Things
 35:23 Parenting, Compliance, and Agency
 39:08 Influence, Media, and the Power of Messaging
 45:44 Compliance as Influence and Trust
 52:10 Regulation and Responsibility
 1:01:42 Regulators and the Risk Mindset
 1:03:56 Data, Trust, and the Green Flag

Links to Hemma’s channels:

Unless The Podcast
 https://www.youtube.com/@UnlessThePodcast/videos

Great Women in Compliance
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD0gUglo89BrSri7MCOCDi0Ovza2bcrrN

From the evolution of trader voice analytics to the rise of agent-to-agent systems, Dietmar shares how Symphony is bridging human communication and machine understanding, and what it means for industries built on trust, compliance, and speed.

They discuss the limits of large models, the ethics of autonomous systems, and whether humanity can truly manage the pace of its own progress. Along the way, they reflect on the nature of intelligence, the future of work, and the moral systems that keep us human in an age of accelerating machines.

Chapters:
 00:00 Intro
 01:01 Technology, scale, and the Symphony platform
 03:19 From trading floors to AI: Symphony’s evolution
 07:06 The rise of generative AI and the moment everything shifted
 15:12 Teaching machines to understand trader language
 21:46 AI, autonomy, and agent-to-agent systems
 32:03 The risks of progress and the need for guardrails
 38:50 Jobs, disruption, and the new AI economy
 43:47 Are large models plateauing?
 49:19 What do humans still do best?
 56:34 “We are programmed for progress”: the accelerationist view
 01:02:15 Unlocking collective intelligence

Here’s the link to the research mentioned in the podcast:

https://futurism.com/facebooks-language-creating-ai-bots-are-now-required-to-negotiate-in-english

Together, they unpack the post-2008 regulatory landscape, explore the shifting balance between safety and growth, and dive into the far-reaching implications of the EU’s DORA legislation.

If you’re navigating third-party risk, operational resilience, or tech-driven compliance, this episode offers grounded insight from leaders who’ve shaped the system, from both sides of the regulatory fence.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

00:33 – Setting the Stage: Are We Safer?

02:04 – The Problem of Risk Displacement

09:06 – Innovation, Growth & Regulatory Balance

18:03 – DORA: Why It Matters More Than You Think

25:12 – Smarter Compliance, Proactive Culture

28:41 – Final Thoughts & What Comes Next

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

00:24 – Early Days in Compliance

01:15 – The Shift from Notebooks to Digital Records

04:13 – Turning Points in Financial Regulation: The Zubulake Case

10:45 – Records, Risk, and Responsibility

17:41 – Technology and the Rise of AI in Compliance

28:02 – The Subjectivity of Regulatory Standards

35:08 – Preparing for the Next Compliance Challenge

If you’re curious about how the banking world really works behind the headlines — and what the next evolution of risk, regulation and AI-driven compliance might look like — this episode gives an insider perspective on the changing face of finance.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:27 Sally’s Career Journey

02:57 Inside the LIBOR Scandal

08:16 Regulatory Evolution

18:35 Role of Technology

29:21 Culture & Conduct

30:25 Future Outlook

FCA update as pointed out in the podcast:

⁠https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/12/financial-watchdog-scraps-plan-to-name-and-shame-uk-firms-under-investigation