Five things you need to know when selecting an AML solution

No matter where you are in your company’s growth, your anti-money laundering (AML) efforts significantly impact your business. In 2022, the world has seen major changes in every aspect impacting the fight against financial crime: societal, legal, technological; you name it.

In 2022, we have seen increased urgency in enhancing AML capabilities to improve the productivity of compliance teams in fast-growing financial services organizations. It is worth looking at some of the most important considerations when selecting an AML compliance solution.

1. A great user interface that puts you first

For years, the rise in financial crime has been answered by an increase in resources mobilized by financial institutions to detect, investigate, and bring to light illicit activity. But answering an exponential problem with a linear response is not a sustainable model. Especially not in this day and age of digital productivity.

The single most important factor in AML is not technology but humanity.

An AML solution needs to center around the human, the professional AML investigator. Compliance tools need to account for their preferences, their needs, and deliver for their productivity. Purpose-built, no-nonsense user interfaces can supercharge an AML analyst’s efficiency so much that it reverberates throughout the organization to create all kinds of other business benefits as well.

2. Designed for AML

The best facade can still pose in front of the worst solution. A good user interface (UI) doesn’t necessarily equal a good user experience (UX), but they’re still in a symbiotic relationship. The UI is the surface; the UX is the power that an AML professional can leverage to fight financial crime. A good UI doesn’t worth much if it isn’t built to control a larger UX purpose-built for compliance.

UX in AML has to be specifically designed around AML processes.

As financial crime goes global and exponentially complex, AML must become collaborative, surgically precise, and intuitive. UX design for AML products needs to account for the vast interconnectedness of information, the needs of investigative process, and the wide range of other tools and resources used. Well-designed UX offers no extraneous drag but provides in-depth information lineage when needed. Good AML UX has all the tools an investigator might need to build a case against money launderers, and nothing more, but it doesn’t overwhelm the analyst with all of them at once. UX in AML needs to be a team player, and connect the needs and tools across Know Your Customer (KYC), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), and business values for the entire organization.

3. Using best-in-class technology

No UI/UX can work without the underlying technology to power them. Financial data has grown way past what humans can (and should) handle by themselves, especially with the recent pandemic and new economic trends like blockchain accelerating digital transformation to the maximum.

AML vendors need to leverage technology with purpose and stay current, innovative, and agile while maintaining reliability.

Leveraging artificial intelligence for AML can be immensely effective, as long as it’s indeed leveraged for AML. Regulators across jurisdictions are pushing financial institutions to move away from rule-based, simple systems and adopt behavior-based, continuous solutions. New fintechs and transforming banks alike can speed up their compliance journey by selecting an AML solution that leverages data science and AI-driven technology built for detecting suspicious financial behaviors.

4. From a vendor that works (and grows) with you

Wherever they may be in their growth journey, a crucial consideration for modern financial businesses is an AML vendor a vendor that can facilitate and support the creation of a best-of-breed technology ecosystem, with the interoperability to leverage both internal and 3rd party capabilities beyond their own. By coming together and working openly across complimentary vendor capabilities, we have the best chance of increasing protection against financial crime risk while fueling growth.

Buying an AML solution isn’t a transaction: it’s a long-term collaboration.

As the fintech industry becomes more and more prominent, their competitive advantage is lost if they’re forced to the same path everyone else is walking. A good AML vendor offers solutions that match the needs of the financial institutions at the point of purchase, but is also capable of scaling seamlessly as needed. This kind of sustainable compliance creates long-term security against financial crime for every type of organization, from startups to scale-ups to enterprises.

5. A brand you can trust

A good AML solution, as we detailed above, needs to bring efficiency and sustainability to your organization. Always look at the brand behind the product, and look at the trust others have placed in them. Just as your organization has to look into who it offers business to, it also needs to examine who it does business with.

Enhanced Due Diligence covers not just onboarding your customers but also your supply chain.

An AML brand you can trust will not try to scare you into buying a product but champion the positive transformation you can make with them. An AML vendor you can count on stands to empower your organization, not just “transact” with you. The AML solution you should believe in will help, teach, and assist you and your team.

Let’s meet at FFECON22!

Lucinity is a SaaS AML developer offering a compliance solution with an intuitive UI and purpose-built UX powered by best-in-class data science and AI: an open system intended to integrate with and be the central hub for all other compliance tools to make a compound impact against financial crime.

We’ll be at FFECON22 in London on May 26th, and eager to talk to you about your needs and hopes for fighting financial crime. We’re proud to sponsor a networking event where you can Make Money Good with us for charities, raise a drink for the future of AML, and find out how we can bring dark money into the light together.

See you there?