An industry survey has indicated that 56% of financial institutions and other organizations such as regulators and governing bodies anticipate technology budgets for anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud detection to increase in the next year.
The research, conducted by Miami-based consulting firm AML Services International and sponsored by Fiserv, collated opinions from 271 AML and fraud personnel at financial institutions and other organizations such as regulators and governing bodies. Responses came from institutions in Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas.
AML, card fraud, mobile payment fraud and internal fraud were the areas of crime of greatest importance to banks.
In addition to these findings, 54% of the aggregate respondents indicated that a one platform solution or vendor approach is preferred to satisfy the anti-fraud and AML needs of both transaction monitoring and case management. This sentiment appeared particularly strong in EMEA with 79% of respondents agreeing that one platform is more effective than separate point solutions when conducting transaction monitoring.
The convergence of financial crime prevention operations emerged as a predominant theme, even though internal structures are not necessarily in place yet within financial institutions to execute on this theme. Of those surveyed, 49% indicated that the most likely benefits resulting from the convergence of financial crime risk management systems would be the improved detection of money laundering and fraud and increased process streamlining.
The increase in volume and complexity of financial crimes is driving financial institutions to look more closely at their operations in order to be more accurate and efficient in the processing and detection of these crimes, said John Filby, president, Risk and Compliance, Fiserv. Inefficient operations are a drain on resources for many financial institutions. As a result we are getting increasing demands for technology that moves financial crime prevention onto a single platform to address increasing threats from money laundering and fraud.
(JDC)