Accuity Releases Bankers Almanac Enhanced Due Diligence to Automate Risk Assessments

API technology integrates Bankers Almanac intelligence on global financial institutions with Firco financial crime screening software to automate enhanced due diligence reporting

Accuity, the leading global provider of financial crime screening, payment services, and know your customer (KYC) solutions, has announced the availability of Bankers Almanac Enhanced Due Diligence, a new solution that will enable banks to conduct efficient and effective KYC risk assessments of their financial counterparties within a single application. Accuity has brought together two of its solutions, Bankers Almanac: Counterparty KYC and Firco Compliance Link, to create an ‘out-of-the-box’ SaaS platform that automates the enhanced due diligence (EDD) reports and audit trails required to meet regulatory guidance.

Bankers Almanac Enhanced Due Diligence helps banks meet ever-increasing regulatory expectations, while improving operational efficiency and minimising the mounting cost of compliance. It addresses these issues by:

• Providing detailed documentation of the risk identification process for greater transparency, including an electronic audit trail of all actions taken
• Automating the financial counterparty KYC and financial crime screening processes within a single interface
• Bringing down the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the KYC process by streamlining systems and reducing manual tasks.

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Regulatory pressure on the financial services industry continues to build. The FinCEN Files – a leak of thousands of Suspicious Activity Reports in 2020 – was a stark reminder of the role financial institutions hold as gatekeepers of the financial system and suggested banks must go further to report financial crime risks more effectively. However, the burden of compliance on a bank’s resources remains a sticking point; 76% of financial institutions find onerous processes a challenge when conducting KYC, according to findings from the Accuity KYC survey.

When forming new correspondent banking relationships or reviewing existing partnerships, banks are required to perform due diligence, including sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEP) and adverse media screening, to create a risk profile for each financial counterparty. This is often a highly laborious task, requiring KYC analysts to access multiple systems, source information manually from correspondent banks, and conduct screening, before compiling the final assessment report. This process is repeated at regular intervals to ensure the risk assessment remains up to date.

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Bankers Almanac Enhanced Due Diligence automates the risk identification process. The solution connects the comprehensive Bankers Almanac data set of more than 200,000 global financial institutions, including names, addresses, and ownership information, with Firco Compliance Link, which assesses sanctions and money laundering risk by screening entities against the full breadth of financial crime data. The solution uses API technology to integrate functionality from both solutions within one platform and generates a detailed automated risk report based on the screening results.

Dalbir Sahota, VP Bankers Almanac KYC, commented “Many of our clients across the globe want to make their financial counterparty KYC risk assessments more efficient and effective, and aspire to keep pace with the standards of the world’s largest banks. We have created Bankers Almanac Enhanced Due Diligence to give all banks access to a KYC solution that provides both automation and auditability in risk-based decision making, without the substantial investment of building and maintaining a complex in-house solution. The platform is ready to go straight ‘out-of-the-box’ and will help our clients keep up with international best practices, while maintaining trusted relationships with their correspondent banking partners.”

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