Customer: European Tier 1 bank
Industry: Retail banking, corporate banking, investment banking
Use case: Financial crime risk assessment
Outcomes: Better understanding of threats and risks; improved productivity and cost efficiency; ability to justify approach and demonstrate compliance
After having been in business for over a century and establishing themselves as a major player in their home country’s retail and corporate banking sectors, a European tier one bank started expanding to additional markets across the continent.
They offered multiple business lines, including corporate, investment, and consumer banking, and with their growing international footprint, getting a clear view of their threats became near impossible.
Historically, the bank had used spreadsheets to conduct their annual financial crime risk assessment. But as the business grew in complexity, this approach hampered their ability to get an accurate, up-to-date view of their risk position across the entire business.
The countries they operate in have different anti-money laundering (AML) requirements that local branches need to meet. This made it difficult to roll out an approach that gave the group oversight of their aggregate view of risk and meet local regulatory expectations. Different functional groups tended to operate in silos, meaning that different approaches were adopted for sanctions, AML and terrorist financing, and fraud.
“A spreadsheet wasn’t cutting it anymore. It became too hard organize the risks for seven countries with different lines of business and different AML requirements.”
Head of AML and CTF
Although the risk assessment would take months to put together, the end result still left them exposed to threats that risk or control owners might have missed. Not surprisingly, they often found it difficult to demonstrate that they were meeting requirements and defend their decisions to auditors.
They also wanted to change the way they conducted their business-wide risk assessment. The bank had good internal intelligence that they wanted to use as the backbone of the assessment, but maintaining a database of that intelligence in a spreadsheet was proving challenging.
That’s when they were introduced to the Acuminor's plarform Risk Assessment Pro (RA Pro) by a financial crime consultant that they were working with.
Although they weren’t actively looking for an intelligence tool, the benefits were clear: a platform-based solution that can manage internal and external intelligence, integrates with their other reporting platforms, and could provide a more granular view of their risks and controls.
Once they realized the platform’s potential, they decided to roll it out across all business lines and countries from the start. This helped them get up to speed much quicker and avoid the need for a staggered approach.
“The roll-out of the Acuminor’s platform was the first in the bank’s nearly two-centuries-long history where we were able to implement it across all regions and products in six months”.
Programme Manager
The bank had plenty of support in rolling out the platform: they had access to dedicated subject matter experts that understood both the product, and the environment the bank’s financial crime team operated in.
The subject matter experts even supported the bank in completing their first BWRA with the tool. They now have regular calls with the Acuminor support team to discuss product developments and the bank’s intelligence needs.
They’re now able to view all the national and regional risk assessments relevant to them within the platform. It quickly and easily identifies which recommendations are relate to their business, based on their countries of operation and products. They can also add their own intelligence to the platform, giving them an even more bespoke view.
Based on the success of the initial implementation, which covered only money laundering and terrorist financing, the bank’s extending its use to sanctions and fraud as well. They’ve also integrated their internal business and management solutions through an API, to get even more tailored data-driven insights.
“Acuminor has given us the confidence that we can show regulators that we’re meeting the unique requirements for different countries, and that we’re staying on top of risks as they evolve”.
Head of AML and CTF
By rolling out the Acuminor technology across the entire business, they’re now able to:
Contact us to learn more about risk assessment solutions and intelligence.