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(The byline says this was written by me. Not completely true. It was co-written with a generative AI platform. It took a fraction of the time these things usually take to write. I will use “I,” but it feels like “we” would be more appropriate. Anyway….) ________________ I’ve added the asterisk so as not to […]

As the volume of data available to humanity has increased over the last decade, it has exposed a weakness in the way we as humans think. Humans are terrible at making decisions that rely on taking many variables into consideration. Scientists have suspected this for some time. As early as 1956, George Miller published a […]

Not all anti-money laundering and fraud solutions are created equal, and this has caused definite frustration among financial institutions. In fact, according to a 2019 study by Duffs & Phelps, 30% of institutions surveyed rate at least one of their AML components as being either “not at all” or only “somewhat” effective. Even though AI […]

As cryptocurrencies continue to grow exponentially, regulation is starting to follow suit. As such, VASPs and related service providers in this emergent industry are finding themselves under greater scrutiny. Crackdowns are under way Late in 2021, a federal court ordered crypto exchange BitMEX to pay $100 million for failing to maintain anti-money laundering protocols (in […]

Human trafficking. Let’s call it what it really is. Slavery. Modern slavery victims are coerced to work for no money or false promises of debt repayment. Forced labor amounts to around 75% of human trafficking. Sex trafficking makes up the other 25%, yet it actually accounts for almost three quarters of total human trafficking profits […]

By now, we all know the statistics. It’s estimated that, in just one year, laundered money totals 2% to 5% of the global GDP. That amounts to a towering $2 trillion in US dollars. Traditional transaction monitoring approaches just aren’t equipped to win the money-laundering war. In fact, existing systems return false positive alerts as […]

Many have written volumes about the “new normal.” It’s pretty much a certainty that you’re tired reading about it, but the fact remains that the pandemic and ensuing events have altered the way both consumers and corporations function, and the banking industry is no exception. For financial institutions, one of the most disruptive consequences of […]

SymphonyAI has acquired NetReveal, a leading financial crime detection company, from BAE Systems. This is an exciting moment for all of us. It has the potential to shake up the industry and deliver a huge change in our collective ability to detect and combat financial crime. It is also an enormous recognition of the progress […]

It’s widely acknowledged that correspondent banks play a fundamental role in the global banking system. Without them, financial institutions would have no access to foreign markets without opening international branches. Authorized in their regions to provide fee-based services to foreign banks, correspondent banks routinely assist in facilitating wire transfers, account deposits, settlements, currency exchanges and […]

RFIs and RFPs (Requests for Information and Requests for Proposals) for our financial crime solutions come across our desk on a regular basis. While many are well crafted, too many still lack a number of the necessary elements to give the requestor enough information to make an educated decision. Assuming you are canvassing multiple vendors […]

We all know that an excess of false positives results in a huge waste of time for AML investigators, which translates to significant and unnecessary cost. It also impedes a bank’s ability to target legitimate money laundering events. But is the attention we pay to false positives causing us to overlook the hidden dangers of […]

Cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) are among the hottest topics discussed among financial pundits these days. While the fear of Russia using crypto to sidestep sanctions may have brought the matter to the forefront, both the risks and benefits of virtual currency have been weighing heavily on legislators worldwide for quite some time, with different […]

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be used to buy goods online. Cryptocurrencies work using blockchain, a decentralized technology spread across many computers that manage and record transactions. Part of the appeal of this technology and it’s growing usage is its security.   There are more than 14,500 cryptocurrencies according to coinmarketcap.com and nearly impossible to regulate because of the decentralized infrastructure […]

The most common tactics used by financial institutions to detect illicit activity are rules-based detection scenarios applied by transaction monitoring systems. These rules are straightforward and not complex in nature, with some being necessitated by OCC regulations. When a transaction triggers one or multiple rules, an alert is created and passed to an investigator who must decide if it is a false positive, worth investigating, or escalating to the authorities. […]

The team at Chartis Research is about as well regarded in financial services as you get. Their flagship report on the RiskTech100 is the bible for the industry and their ability to go deep on the issues AND the technology set them apart. They have recognized Ayasdi consistently. We won their top spot in for […]

Habits of a lifetime were changed over the past 18 months whether it was working remotely, limited contact and travel restrictions, and the list goes on. Communication across all realms moved online during the pandemic which created a perfect storm for cybercriminals to up their game and deploy much more sophisticated and targeted attacks.   However, despite the advances in technology, humans remain the weakest link in […]

As economies slowly bounce back after months of lockdowns and social distancing, consumers are looking to resume their daily lives. Moving house, booking a trip, buying a new car or a big-ticket item delayed due to Covid-19 are now firmly back on the agenda.  This renewed enthusiasm for spending and borrowing though comes with a […]

Governance Risk and Compliance leaders recognize that making a shift from a rules-based to models-based approach is necessary to keep up and respond to the developing reality that financial crime is increasingly complex. Financial firms continue to expand their digital footprint across all products and channels, making the risk to their ecosystems and customers exponentially […]

2020 shaped up to be a year no one will ever forget or one that anyone could have seen coming. Within a few short months, the global landscape of how society lives and works changed completely, and a different way of life was forced upon us. This was exceptionally difficult for the financial industry that […]

Despite more stringent anti-money laundering (AML) regulation over the past decade, combating financial crime continues to be a major problem for financial institutions. Natwest is the latest bank to be under regulatory scrutiny but there have been a multitude of incidents during the past year as the pandemic accelerated the pace of digitalization which in […]

In 2015 machines could “see” better than humans and in 2016 AlphaGo learned to play Go and beat Lee Sedol. By 2018 Waymo launched the world’s first self-driving taxi service, and in 2020 GPT-3 learned the internet. It is clear that the pace of AI innovation is accelerating exponentially, and this is only a glimpse […]