IT’s not rocket science

As the trend continues towards proactive monitoring, financial institutions need to consider carefully automated tools. The trick is to avoid hype and to carry out a full pre-purchase evaluation of the role for automation in countering money laundering (AML) or terrorist financing (ATF) risks that the organisation faces. James Phillips, Group Marketing Director of compliance and regulatory specialists STB Systems (www.stbsystems.com), reports on his firm’s experiences with automation and argues that some form of assistance from packaged applications is inevitable. In part one of the article, he explores the use of automation for customer documentation, suspicious activities, watch lists, data normalisation and the search for the enemy within. Part two next month will provide a purchaser’s checklist that illustrates how to keep down the cost of ownership by ensuring flexibility and by reviewing management outputs from automation, including workflow and procedural enforcement.