CNA 938 radio interviews Tookitaki Co-founder Jeeta Badopadhyay
Tookitaki Co-founder and COO Jeeta Bandopadhyay was named among the Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) List in September 2020. A collaboration between the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), IMDA, SG Women in Tech and Mediacorp, the inaugural SG100WIT List recognis...
Need for New Customer Risk Rating Models: Not All Customers Are Cre...
Being estimated at between US$800 billion to US$2 trillion every year, money laundering is a serious problem for the global economy. While regulators and financial institutions are working hard to prevent and reduce the crime, launderers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are introducing techniques that are harder to decode. Changing customer behaviour and the introduction of numerous digital transaction methods add to the AML compliance worry of banks. The COVID-19 pandemic has also been playing its role, as criminals adapt their strategies to the unforeseen situation. We have earlier written about rising number of cybercrimes and fraud schemes across the globe, where criminals take advantage of the people’s scare, helplessness...
Is AML Compliance Heading for a New Normal in the Age of Digital Pa...
Increased digitization has influenced various businesses and brought in a paradigm shift in the way they create business models and approach growth opportunities. Moving away from conventional transaction modes such as cash and checks, banks and FIs across the globe are increasingly adopting digital means of payments. Technology also paved the way for many digital payment methods such as pre-paid cards, mobile payments and internet payment services, commonly referred to as New Payment Methods (NPMs). In some countries, they have emerged as viable alternatives to the traditional financial system. While these NPMs enhanced the ease and speed at which funds are accessed and transactions are made, they opened up new avenues for fraudsters to abuse the financial system and clean illicit funds. In this article, we will explore the market transformation in digital payments ecosystem and impending AML risks, which can be detected proactively and mitigated through a tech-enabled transformation.
NPM Market Expansion
Over the last 10 years, digital payment methods have seen a significant rise in popularity. The period from 2012 to 2015 saw a surge in the adoption of credit and debit cards. According to the 2016 Federal Reserve Payments Study, the number of debit card payments (including payments with prepaid and non-prepaid cards) grew to 69.5 billion in 2015 with a value of $2.56 trillion, up 13.0 billion or $0.46 trillion since 2012. Meanwhile, the number of credit card payments reached 33.8 billion in 2015 with a value of $3.16 trillion, up 6.9 billion or $0.61 trillion since 2012....
Excel to AI: How Reconciliation Tools Evolve for Better
In the world of finance, reconciliation is the process of comparing two related sets of records or two accounts at the end of a specific accounting period to find out if account balances are matching in both records. Periodic reconciliation of accounts is an important accounting process and is mandated by regulators to identify accounting discrepancies before they lead to serious book-keeping issues. Timely checking of accounts will identify data issues like duplication, omission, date error and amount error. In many use cases, account reconciliation will spot signs of fraud or manipulations (unauthorized transfers, unauthorized withdrawals, etc.) early. Any discrepancies in reconciliation should be investigated and, if needed, adjustments are to be added to balance both accounts.
The complexity of reconciliation varies with the type of accounts, nature of business and the volume of data to reconcile. There are different reconciliation types of varying complexities such as bank reconciliation, credit card reconciliation, positions reconciliation, custodial account reconciliation, point-of-sale (POS) reconciliation, balance sheet reconciliation, suspense account reconciliation, etc. Depending on the complexity, different businesses use different methods to reconcile accounts from paper ledgers to reconciliation software. With increasing digitalization, paper records are not seen anywhere today. Businesses of all scales are using tools such as spreadsheets, accounting software and robotic process automation (RPA) to address reconciliations of various complexities. Having proven its capabilities across industries, modern technologies such as AI and machine learning are also being used widely, especially fo...
Lessons Not Well Learned: 2020 AML Fines Cross 2019 Total
If research is to be believed, institutions across the globe have not done enough in the anti-money laundering (AML) compliance area. Data from consultancy Duff & Phelps revealed that AML fines in the first six months of 2020 reached US$706 million, compared to US$444 million in the entire 2019. The fact that the penalties were imposed on the same shortcomings as that of the previous years is more worrying than the sudden increase in fines. According to the consultancy, customer due diligence, AML management, suspicious activity monitoring and compliance monitoring and oversight are the areas where firms are going wrong repeatedly. Key Takeaways from Research A total of 16 fines totaling US$ 706 million related to money laundering in...
Exploring AML Risks in COVID-Era and the Ways to Address Them
The world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis it brought in is unprecedented in the history of humankind. While there are a number of pandemic-related factors contributing to the expected crisis with financial services, financial crimes pose a se...
