AML: Taking compliance from expensive and ineffective to affordable, accessible and reliable

A leak from the US treasury department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) in September showed that even the biggest, most globally respected banks appeared to be allowing money laundering to take place under their roof. The leaked documents included files sent by banks, to the US authorities between 2000 and 2017, and included details of transactions worth a total of around $2 trillion.

It was reported in August that the total AML fine values for H1 2020 had already surpassed the total value of fines issued in 2019 as a whole, writes Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer at Banking Circle.

The key AML failings reported around the world between 2015 and 2020 included Customer Due Diligence, AML Management and Compliance Monitoring. Banks are spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on regulatory
compliance every year, yet it seems they are still struggling to comply with the latest regulations and protect their businesses and their law-abiding customers from risk.

Indeed, a Banking Circle white paper published in July reported that the impact of regulation was the biggest challenge facing the financial institutions surveyed. Participants in a digital discussion panel focused on the findings of the study noted that many new developments in regulation were hard to predict and presented significant challenges for banks, many of whom are now having to direct increasing amounts of resource to their compliance departments.

However, the participants also identified regulation – including KYC and AML in particular – as an area in which collaboration with third parties could bring significant mutual benefits. The question is how influential are the KYC and AML processes in the choice of third party partners?  Is it simply a hygiene factor – almost a box-ticking exercise or is it something that could make the difference in a contract being awarded?

Of course, due diligence is an absolute requirement for every financial services provider, but how can third parties help in that process?

Banking Circle is a financial infrastructure provider working with banks, payments businesses and FinTechs to provide access to a range of banking services including cross border payments, accounts, FX and lending. And our solutions monitor the transaction flows of our clients supporting their compliance obligations.

Now Banking Circle is carrying out a short survey to better understand whether AML processes are a significant factor when selecting a partner to handle payment flows.

To thank you for your time your details will be entered into a free prize draw for one of 10 Amazon vouchers worth £50 or the equivalent in a currency of your choice.

Please click HERE to take survey

It should only take about five minutes to complete, and we look forward to sharing the results with you.

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