The global financial system has accelerated significantly over the last decade. While transactions took days, sometimes weeks, to be executed a few years ago, money can be transferred around the globe in real or near-time today. But not only consumers and businesses embrace the fast financial system: criminals also try to secure their stakes in this new technological environment.

“Real-time and instant payments have surged, driven by consumer demand for faster execution and lower transaction costs. The speed and force with which the market has moved to digital channels, payment platforms and crypto-currencies has called central banks and regulators to action – meanwhile, over 84 economies have established fast- or instant-payment networks to preserve the integrity and relevance of their respective financial markets. What we should assume is that financial crime has gone real-time too, and that criminals will find loopholes and exploit new infrastructure,” says Dr Sebastian Hetzler, co-CEO of IMTF, a leading vendor for compliance software.

This development rocks the foundation on which the globally established anti-financial crime procedures are built: in order to stay effective in this new world, the fight against financial crime has to go real-time as well. This is according to Dr Hetzler. He says that while only few organisations are currently able to conduct thorough AML checks in real-time, the market is changing and driving a need for speed and accuracy.

Fighting real-time financial crime in real-time

But there is more than the new technological capabilities that drive the need for change: on the one hand are the financial institutions themselves: “More financial institutions now want to be more proactive in terms of fighting financial crime, with a more risk-aware approach. Their concern is not just about fines; it’s about protecting their reputation. Money laundering is seen as a major crime, and ESG-aware consumers prefer to work with good corporate citizens,” says Dr Hetzler. On the other hand, a growing force in the field is pushing for a new approach. “Many experts in the field are concluding that the global anti-financial crime ecosystem is ineffective: billions of dollars are spent on combating financial crime, but the outcomes are disappointing. Currently, only around 4% of suspicious activity reports filed by financial institutions are prosecuted,” he says.

Alongside the global push for real-time AML capabilities, South African organisations are facing unique pressures. Lizette Sander, Product Manager at Bateleur Software, points out that institutions across various sectors, from banks to estate agents, are working to address deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes, as identified by the FATF grey-listing. “This listing has highlighted areas for improvement in compliance across South Africa's financial landscape. To meet these challenges, organisations need to closely monitor transactions, and the adoption of real-time AML tools can significantly assist them in these efforts,' she adds."

What it takes to become real-time

While financial institutions see the value of real-time AML checks, achieving this can prove challenging from both a technical and an organisational perspective.

The starting point of real-time AML is the transaction: “A transaction alone doesn't carry much information about risk associated with it,” Dr Hetzler says. “But a clear picture emerges once you connect all risk relevant information about the receiver and/or sender. You have to build context around a single transaction within the moment – you have to connect a lot of dots in real-time.”

Dr Hetzler explains: “As a first step, financial institutions need infrastructures that allow them to effectively ensure compliance with international sanctions in real-time. The second and more challenging step towards real-time AML is the integration of all available data about customers and behaviours. Breaking down the silos between the different anti-financial crime ‘disciplines’, like KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and anti-fraud, is crucial. Based on integrated data, banks can make real-time decisions on high-risk transactions. For example, banks would stop high value transactions coming from a medium or high-risk country to one of their clients who is a political exposed person (PEP) or transactions that go to or come from a dormant (inactive) account.” Last but not least is the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Based on integrated data, we can teach the machine to detect money-laundering patterns and unusual, suspicious behaviour in real-time.

Dr Hetzler emphasises: “To accomplish these checks very quickly, the technological infrastructure must be robust, resilient and scalable enough to cope with peak times. There is also the operational aspect to consider: compliance operations must be real-time too, so people must be available to work on alerts 24/7.” In many countries, having staff work nights and weekends has labour legislation implications, and organisations might not be able to outsource this work to offshore partners due to data sovereignty and privacy regulations.

"IMTF’s Siron One platform is designed to empower compliance teams with a comprehensive, AI-powered solution that integrates multiple data sources and compliance tools. By connecting information from KYC, transaction monitoring and other critical data points, Siron One enables teams to make swift, data-driven decisions. The platform’s AI and machine learning capabilities automate complex analysis, allowing compliance teams to focus on genuine threats and address them in real-time, keeping pace with the demands of today’s fast-evolving financial landscape."

Siron One is also built to tackle sophisticated challenges like sanctions evasion or trade-based money laundering. These forms of financial crime exploit the intricate nature of international trade and supply chains to avoid detection, making them especially challenging to monitor. With Siron One’s advanced technology, compliance teams gain the tools to uncover hidden patterns and effectively manage these risks. Dr Hetzler highlights that "with clear rulebooks and a high degree of automation, Siron One’s AI, machine learning and automation drive institutions toward achieving real-time AML compliance".