Accuity Insights Blog

Arthit Saeli, the owner of a commercial real estate company in Thailand, entered a local bank to open a new account. No red flags arose during the onboarding process. The account manager opened the account, shook Saeli’s hand and thanked him for choosing their institution.

Sanctions do have some effect in terms of creating an administrative threat, but in practical terms, there is still a long way to go.

In the latest of our ‘Ask the Expert’ series, we talk to Mark Nuttall, Country Manager for Hill & Associates in Singapore, about his experiences of combatting complex crime and the ongoing international battle to stay one step ahead of money launderers.

This week saw the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) expose thousands of confidential documents, known as the FinCEN Files. Here, we provide some initial observations on what the leaked documents say about the current state of the global financial crime compliance landscape.

Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are confidential records of unusual financial activity detected by financial institutions as part of their financial crime compliance obligations. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) received more than 12 million SARs between 2011 and 2017 – and more than two million in 2019 alone.

Correspondent banking relationships are vital to not only the banking sector, but to economies as a whole. This vast network of bank relationships breeds financial inclusion, providing populations and businesses with access to banking services that they might otherwise struggle to find, and eases trading party relationships between nations.

In the digital age, there is increasing demand for fast, simple, error-free payments. Yet friction in the payments process often stands in the way of achieving the ease and speed consumers now expect. Organisations that set up, route and process payments must improve straight-through processing in order to keep up with their increasingly digital customer […]

The global pandemic has changed the way people manage their finances. This has given rise to a wave of rapid product innovation from financial service providers. Many of the trends will be fundamental and long-lasting. How the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the payments space The payments space has been hit hard by the pandemic, with […]

Financial Counterparty Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) screening continue to be vital components of proactive compliance and risk management. Yet the goal posts keep shifting as regulators constantly adjust their requirements for effective compliance and frequently publish updates to sanctions lists. In 2019 alone, Accuity recorded 242 changes to major sanctions lists […]

Accuity employees across the globe are celebrating Women’s Equality Day by reflecting on the importance of advocacy and social support, and how we can all actively cultivate a supportive environment for women in the workplace.