Financial crime can thrive without robust due diligence screening, combining quality risk intelligence data with tools to unlock the data’s true value. In our latest Expert Talk, we examine the World-Check features helping over-stretched compliance teams to pinpoint risk and maximise efficiency.
- Without screening against quality risk intelligence data and robust risk intelligence, organisations are open to exploitation by increasingly sophisticated financial criminals.
- World-Check features help compliance teams to manage their due diligence screening by using intelligent tagging, optimised matching, and true identity verification.
- Filtering software to minimise false positives or the use of customised fields in order to reduce noise ensure due diligence decisions are based on relative risk.
Financial criminals are becoming more sophisticated every year and are adept at exploiting new technology to further their aims.
Corruption remains pervasive, with our 2018 True Cost of Financial Crime survey revealing that 47 percent of participating organisations had fallen victim to some form of financial crime in the year preceding the survey.
This is partly because of the lack of adequate screening of data and robust risk intelligence.
In order to win the war on financial crime, organisations need to develop a strategic response to uncovering the real risk that may be obscured by an oversupply of data.
The age of big data offers enhanced opportunities to root out financial crime, but also presents a range of challenges as compliance teams may struggle to pinpoint risk within the daily influx of volumes of information, leading to gaps in compliance.
However, sifting through overwhelming amounts of data with speed and accuracy is possible with the right technology to help.
Read our 2019 report to find out more about innovation and the fight against financial crime.
World-Check features
Properly structured data can empower compliance teams to achieve more with less, because the process of managing data and unlocking its true value becomes optimised.
World-Check Risk Intelligence delivers accurate and reliable information to help you make informed decisions.
It has hundreds of specialist researchers across the globe, adhering to the most stringent research guidelines as they collate information from reliable and reputable sources — such as watch lists, government records, and media searches.
Here is a snapshot of some of the World-Check features and available functionality that can help:
- Tagging
Risk changes over time and therefore it is necessary to analyse incoming information on a daily basis without missing important updates.
Technology that alerts users to key changes in records by tagging updated fields is an invaluable tool to help ensure that important changes are not missed.
On top of this, the ability to categorise updates from the most critical to least critical allows users to focus on what’s important and prioritise their remediation activity.
- Optimised matching
Matching is a fundamental part of rigorous screening, but can quickly become time-consuming and expensive.
One of the ways to optimise matching is to automatically exclude low-quality aliases that could be misleading or irrelevant.
Filtering software is able to recognise weak or unimportant alternative names, thus significantly reducing the volume of false positives generated.
- True identity verification
One of the central aims of Know your Customer (KYC) checks is establishing true identity, but this is often a complex undertaking.
For example, the use of Chinese Commercial Codes, which are in standard use in the Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese financial systems, can cause confusion. Software to resolve potential identity issues linked to these codes ensures that the right entities are flagged.
- Customised fields
Each individual screening case is unique and therefore being able to customise the fields that are included in each data-file (such as dates of birth, citizenships and identification numbers) delivers immediate, tangible benefits. Noise is reduced and only relevant information tailored to individual needs is included.
- Sub-classification
Sub-classification, for example, of politically exposed persons (PEPs), allows users to develop a more strategic response to remediation by making due diligence decisions based on relative risk.
Not all PEPs may pose the same level of risk to a particular organisation, so sub-classification will help compliance teams to determine the level of activity monitoring required.
- Visuals
Relationship networks can be complex and even deliberately obscured. Visual tools can be an invaluable aid, offering a different perspective that helps to simplify intricate networks.
Choosing the right tools
As organisations move up the data management maturity curve, they must first ensure that they have access to reliable, accurate and properly maintained information and then optimise the value they extract from this data.
The tools on offer to achieve this can streamline processes, speed up turnaround times, and contribute to a more positive overall customer experience.
Technology has become the key differentiator when it comes to the accuracy and efficiency of compliance departments and the benefits on offer are significant, cost-effective and immediate.
