Anti-Money Laundering
The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 is a United States of America Act of Congress that made money laundering a Federal crime. This legislation combined with other legislation such as the European Money Laundering Directive and others from around the world means that corporate treasury departments now have a requirement to ensure that their anti-money laundering (AML) compliance procedures and systems are robust and effective.
To drive compliance, corporates require world-class information screening, transaction monitoring and compliance reporting tools to help minimise risk and manage daily. Companies have traditionally relied on the banks to protect them from trading with potentially illegal counter-party organizations, but the danger to their reputation is too great to rely just on the banks support. Some companies are now using the specialist anti-money laundering service suppliers themselves.
A variety of sources, including sanctions data, enhanced due diligence (EDD) data and politically exposed persons (PEP) data are needed to enable companies to avoid trading with potentially illicit organizations, damaging fines and adverse publicity. It is vital that this data is as accurate and up-to-date as possible covering 100% of the regulatory list world-wide .
To screen all transactions and business partners is a complex and time-consuming task. These filtering data needs to be ready for use in many different ways and is as easily accessible so that the corporate treasury department can use it whenever required. Data is available online for individual enquiries, in filtering software that can be use in-house and in files that can be incorporated into corporate treasury management systems.