“No silver bullets”

The Money Laundering Alert Annual International Money Laundering Conference has become arguably the premier global event in its class. Last year it attracted over 600 delegates from 40 countries and this year, the seventh, numbers were even higher. In his first report Timon Molloy records some expert views on anti-laundering software.

The opening seminar was a chance to put some leading anti-money laundering (AML) software vendors under the spotlight. However, first off, Susan Galli, Director of Compliance for Citibank’s e-Business , whose remit includes anti-money laundering controls in global cash management and trade operations, spoke from a major user’s perspective. “There are no silver bullets. Whether you decide to go the software route or develop your own monitoring programme, it will involve a significant commitment by you and/or your vendor.” It was necessary, she said, to start by considering what it is the firm is trying to monitor, broking, retail banking, private banking, or all of the above.“This will dictate the solution that will work for your institution.” Secondly, there is the question of scope, whether the institution faces many different country-specific requirements, for example the threshold for reporting currency transactions will vary and in some markets does not even exist.“You should also consider what reports are already available in your institution. What management information is generated for fraud prevention or marketing and how can this be linked in with what the AML software will do?”