All the financial institutions we’ve worked with have deployed a transaction monitoring system that alerts the bank to suspicious activity. Sophisticated financial institutions have entities exhibiting unusual activity automatically sent to the due diligence team for review. This review results in the KYC information for that entity being updated.
Firms also monitor or refresh their customer […]
Again, communication is critical. Those firms that utilized electronic communication from the relationship manager to the onboarding team had better processes overall. In some cases searches of various databases (sanctions lists, PEPs, adverse news) were run automatically on the verified customer name from the relationship management system. This eliminated re-keying of data, which is a […]
Nowhere in the regulations are financial institutions instructed to use a proprietary database or conduct a proscribed level of research when onboarding a new customer or counterparty. Yet this is where the bulk of the money is spent: in database costs, workflow tools, and investigative labor. As this is where the money is, we have […]
Although M&A activity picked up late in 2012 and in the first quarter of 2013, overall 2012 was a slow year, as was the entire post-financial crisis period. Despite low interest rates and huge amounts of cash on corporate balance sheets, M&A activity over the past few years has been subdued.
Identifying beneficial owners is the most difficult part of the onboarding process. In the seven years Alacra has been providing compliance solutions, we have seen the beneficial ownership requirements increase dramatically. Early on, only owners of 50% or greater needed to be identified. Then for several years most institutions were collecting information on 25% and […]
Alacra is visiting ACAMS 2013 in Florida this week, joining our friends and partners in the key KYC compliance space to help firms of all types stay within the bounds of the law.
On the first full day of the conference, we heard from some of the luminaries of the financial crime and compliance space, […]
We are delighted to announce the latest release of Alacra Compliance Enterprise for global financial institutions. Alacra Compliance Enterprise helps banks and trading firms around the world reduce regulatory, financial, legal, and reputational risk.
If you are not familiar with our compliance solutions, […]
Most firms we have spoken to have a set of basic rules in place that are used to assign a risk rating to an entity. These are usually based on geography of the customer, type of customer, kind of business the customer wants to do with the bank and the appropriateness of that business to […]
“Risk-based approach” is a phrase used in many domains, from pharmaceutical manufacturing practices to auditing, to testing internal controls, to combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The AML regulations are consistent in saying a risk-based approach should be deployed; our best practices that follow explain how some financial institutions get this done.
BSA (Bank Secrecy […]
In Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Habit Two is “Begin with the end in mind.” Customer Identification is the start of the KYC process. Basically, a thorough customer identification procedure can set the stage for best practices throughout the entire onboarding process. One variable is how much data is the […]