Career Biography

Lidia Ureña Cedano is Senior Regulatory Manager in the Legal Directorate of the Asociación de Bancos Múltiples de la República Dominicana (ABA), the trade association of the country’s multiple-service banks. She coordinates the analysis and review of legislative and regulatory initiatives affecting the Dominican banking sector, works on corporate governance matters within the Association, and serves as secretary of the technical committees on anti-money laundering (PLAFT), regulatory compliance, FATCA, and potential risk event management, which bring together the compliance officers and specialists of the country’s multiple-service banks.

Her role places her at the centre of the dialogue between the banking industry and its regulators. She channels the sector’s technical positions before the Superintendency of Banks, the Financial Analysis Unit, the National Congress, and other authorities, and represents the Association in interinstitutional working groups. Recent matters include industry positions on new supervisory reporting frameworks, sectoral coordination on AML reporting obligations, and dialogue between virtual asset service providers and Dominican regulators. She is a member of the working group of the National Risk Assessment on virtual assets and participated in its modules on banking sector vulnerability and financial inclusion.

At the regional level, she recently completed a two-year term as President of COPLAFT, the anti-money laundering committee of the Latin American Banking Federation (FELABAN), which gathers compliance leaders from banking associations across the region. She is also a member of COLAFI, FELABAN’s Latin American trust committee, and represents the Association in international forums, most recently at the opening of FIBA’s public-private dialogue.

Her perspective is shaped by a career on both sides of the regulatory relationship: before joining ABA, she served at the Securities Market Superintendency in financial crime prevention and legal services, coordinated the legal services department of CEVALDOM, the Dominican central securities depository, and spent seven years at the Internal Revenue Directorate (DGII). She is a certified AML/CFT risk management specialist and has spoken at ACAMS’ Latin American AML conference, FIBA, COPLAFT, and other regional forums.