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All That Glitters is Not Gold
Although COVID-19 has created many uncertainties, one thing is certain—financial crimes do not stop based on economic conditions. Perpetrators have capitalized on COVID-19 fears, with jurisdictions around the world seeing an uptick in illegitimate activities such as cybercrime, fraud and the sale of counterfeit goods.1...
COVID-19: The Lurking Financial Crime Threat for FIs
Financial crime risk management in financial institutions (FIs) has undergone big changes due to paradigm shifts in business dynamics, emerging threats, regulatory climate and technological advancements. However, in the last few months, the world has been experiencing something unprecedented that has made all other changes...
How Well Do You Understand AI?
Every tech wave has a steep learning curve. In the not-too-distant past, understanding what the internet was or how to use email made one a party standout. Now it is impossible to imagine not knowing either. Just as it was with these innovations, artificial intelligence...
Technology Provides the Tools—Analytics Deliver the Insights
New technology platforms offer the promise of dramatic improvements in financial crimes programs for banks and other financial institutions (FIs). But for all its power and potential, technology cannot adequately address today’s anti-money laundering (AML) challenges by itself. To be effective, new technology must...
Your AMLRx for COVID-19: Part One
By now, reality has set in. The world is in this for the long haul, and anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions professionals have certainly recognized that the work to protect the financial system will be changed forever. Financial institutions’ (FIs) initial SWAT teams have set...
Musings From Quarantine on the AML/Compliance Industry
Monday through Friday is drastically different now for a large percentage of people both in the U.S. and around the world. More people are under some type of mandated quarantine today than there were people alive in 1940—2.6 billion.1 Most, if not all, of you...
Utilizing the Three Lines of AML Defense Protocols
While I am not a football fan myself, I know that there are lines of defense and each team is trying to prevent the other side from making a touchdown. Similarly, in financial services there are also lines of defense. The entire financial services...
Considerations for Building an MRA Validation Road Map
Bank regulators issue Matters Requiring Immediate Attention1 and Matters Requiring Attention or Matters Requiring Board Attention2 (collectively referred to as MRAs) to financial institutions (FIs) to communicate supervisory concerns—such as a deviation from sound governance, internal controls and risk management principles, and/or noncompliance with laws...
Operationalizing Against OFAC Weaknesses
The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are the peanut butter and jelly of the financial crimes compliance world. Although BSA and OFAC are typically handled by the same department in smaller institutions, their laws are quite different...