The way financial services providers manage regulatory compliance and financial crime has changed dramatically, according to new research by Datamonitor on behalf of Norkom Technologies.

“Securing the Future Against Financial Crime: Enterprise wide management and beyond,” surveyed senior decision makers at global financial services institutions and found increasingly they are combining management of both anti-money laundering activities (AML) and other crimes on an enterprise- wide basis.

Almost three quarters (73%) of respondents confirm that they are managing AML in tandem with other types of financial crime. More than half (53%) have achieved this on a company-wide basis, embracing all geographies and business lines while 20% are progressing towards this goal, having achieved it in some territories.

Nearly half (47%) say they have established financial intelligence units in order to overcome the organizational barriers traditionally associated with enterprise-wide management and to centrally manage investigative resources. A further 14% plan to do so within the next 12 to 24 months.

“Organizations are now focusing their attention on successfully adopting a risk based approach—not just for AML as the regulator requires—but for all areas of financial crime. And they expect these two new priorities to deliver even greater business benefits,” says Kerley.

Eighty-seven per cent of institutions report that they have experienced or expect to experience improvements in crime detection capability as a result of their enterprise-wide approach and 80% say the same for cost savings. But 93% agree that the business benefits of a risk-based approach to customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring will be even greater.

“A risk based approach – in which the extent of monitoring attention given to an individual account or customer is directly commensurate with the degree of business risk they pose – is now a regulatory requirement within AML,” he explains. “Costs will reduce as detection accuracy and investigative efficiency improves. Customer responsiveness will also rise, since low risk new business will be able to be brought onto book more quickly.”