Arjun Kalra, Lisa Lechner, and Erik Mineishi spoke about the best practices for optimizing transaction monitoring.
op·ti·mize verb (used with object) 1
1 .to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible.
2. to make the best of.
Arjun Kalra of Crowe Horwath, Lisa Lechner of AVG Technologies, and Erik Mineishi of Union Bank shared their best practices and advice regarding optimizing transaction monitoring systems. "Doing more with less" will always be a part of any risk compliance group. Therefore, constant maintenance is important to ensure that the risk management team is adequately managing its risks.
Perla Ortiz, the Northern California ACAMS Chapter's programming director opened the event by introducing the speakers.
Then Kalra began the event by discussing synergy and system convergence by giving an example of a case study.
Following, Kalra's opening presentation; Lechner's advice was to "know your technology!" With most of her BSA/AML experience based in the Silicon Valley, Lechner has had a front row seat to the impacts of new technology on the BSA/AML industry. New products like Google Wallet are excellent vehicles to move money and risk management groups need to be aware of the potential uses for money laundering.
Mineishi wrapped up the event with his discussion of providing feedback to management to assess and determine if adequate monitoring is being exercised. The alert life cycle is one of the levers that an institution can change to optimize for a more efficient and risk-focused BSA/AML program.
