Banks globally spend more than $12 billion a year and employ many tens of thousands of people on financial crime compliance (FCC), covering Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions & Embargoes regulations. One would hope that such a large investment has allowed banks to most effectively identify and report on suspicious activity. This, unfortunately, is not the case, and frustrations with current industry solutions are widespread.
There is, however, a real opportunity to improve performance and reduce costs by moving to the next generation of solutions. These include automation of routine tasks, better data and enhanced analytical models, streamlined organization and governance, and improvements to the overall operating model. We have already seen some banks reap considerable benefits from the first steps in this direction. To seize the opportunity fully, banks need to think about the problem on an end-to-end basis, rather than by operating in silos or through discrete technical solutions.
