David Williams, Sales Director - APAC

FREMONT, CA: The need to access the right customer information is more critical with the rise of outbound financial investments by the companies. The heightened regulatory scrutiny forces banks to maintain compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. One of the top banking tech solution provider, encompass corporation untangles this process for banks with by turning the agreement into a competitive advantage. It recently performed an analysis of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) related penalties that have been handed down between the years 2002 and 2019, with a particular focus on 2018 and 2019 that shows 2019 set to be the year yet in terms of the value of fines handed out by regulators.

The encompass view is that considering the financial crash in 2008, there has been a growing focus among financial institutions on the identification and prevention of money laundering and other financial crimes. Since 2014, total AML penalties have endured above a billion dollars every year, mirroring the increased regulatory focus on this area. Multi-million dollar fines are becoming the norm and 2019 set to be the year of record AML fines. “We will continue to monitor this data and re-analyze it in three months. It will be very interesting to see if any further regional or sector insights come to light,” remarks Wayne Johnson CEO and co-founder, encompass.

The expansion of financial services offered by banks are likely to attract increasing scrutiny from regulators and banks are in need to focus on their risk management capabilities to keep pace. The centre for penalties remaining predominantly on banks shows that the sector is a prime channel for money-laundering. US-based regulators seem to be the most active participants. Unsurprisingly the US financial market is the leader in the world and has a transparent regulatory culture, which not all dominions do. This transparency is apportioned by the UK, which is the second most active dominion in the list.

With the rise in AML related penalties and increasingly stringent compliance regulations, combating financial crime is becoming a priority encompass is ever ready to extend its solutions and strategies. “In such a scenario, it is imperative that we continue delivering our services for banks to leverage and bolster their KYC, AML, and compliance processes. Offering financial, IT, and AI expertise to the finance, banking, and legal industries, encompass corporation views 2019 to be a year of unimpeded growth in sales, distribution, and data partnerships across the APAC region.” says David Williams, Sales Director, APAC at encompass corporation.