Wonder what truly sets any of the leading AML compliance programs apart? Effective case management is one of the crucial differentiators that ensure regulated firms address high-risk cases efficiently.
Proper case management is essential as financial institutions are bombarded with increasing volumes of suspicious activity reports and other risk alerts. Last year, more than 2 million SARs were filed with FinCEN, according to their annual report.
With suspicious cases increasing at a fast pace year over year, financial crime compliance teams are under immense pressure to investigate matters efficiently. Adopting best practices can go a long way toward optimizing the process.
The article will consider 7 best practices for your AML case management program that you need to know.
Conduct Thorough Reviews
Case review is the most critical stage in AML case management. The compliance officer must review the suspicious activity reports and other risk alerts, considering all possible customer information, transaction patterns, and other context.
An AML case management system can help by compiling relevant files and data in one place, but it is still upon the officers to understand complex money laundering schemes before they can close a case.
By 2023, there had been more than 2 million SARs filed in the United States alone; the sheer volume of data that is reviewed meticulously is enormous.
Prioritize High-Risk Cases
An AML case management system needs to drive risk scoring, therefore setting the most significant, high-risk cases at the front for immediate review. Some such matters that may call for more urgent attention include politically exposed persons, abnormal transaction amounts, and suspicious customer profiles.
Compliance teams can make their AML case management more efficient by ensuring their limited resources are oriented toward the most potentially severe cases first.
This measure aids in avoiding actual money laundering and terror financing threats within a specified time, falling directly in line with the global initiative to cut financial crimes by at least 25% in the year 2025.
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Stay Ahead of Your Deadlines
Efficient case management for anti-money laundering relies on adherence to set deadlines. Whether internal targets or legal requirements, they keep the compliance effort moving at the necessary speed.
An AML case management system can help remind staffers when reviews are due. Teams falling behind on their busiest cases can be more frustrating to anti-money laundering goals. With careful planning and prioritization, reviewers will hit their deadlines while conducting in-depth evaluations of each matter under review.
An overwhelming 85% of the compliance officers responded that the most pressing challenge facing their AML effort was meeting regulatory deadlines.
Train staff regularly
Ongoing training is critical to a practical case management AML program. Schemes constantly evolve, so compliance employees must regularly be refreshed on the latest red flags and investigation techniques.
An AML case management system can log who has completed which training modules. Meaningful instruction is more than merely ticking check-boxes. Separated learning sessions in which senior staffers share best practices with others offer a path to continuous improvement in case management AML skills.
Implement quality controls
Quality controls should be implemented to ensure that case management AML work is at an acceptable standard. One such mechanism is peer reviews, where independent compliance experts review and check case resolutions.
Query capabilities in the AML case management system also allow supervisors to audit files for mistakes or incomplete documentation. Surveying reviewers to provide anonymized feedback highlights common pitfalls to be addressed.
Regular quality reviews bring out areas that need strengthening of individuals or the entire program. This helps maintain uniformity and stringency in due diligence through case management within the AML process in the long run.
In 2023, 73% of financial institutions used peer reviews to enhance the accuracy of their AML processes.
Leverage Technology Tools
Compliance teams should leverage technological solutions to strengthen case management AML and services. There are many advantages to using an integrated case management system that enable its different aspects to be joined together in comparison to disjoined and manual efforts.
Risk-scoring, deadline tracking, document storage, and analytics all support staffers in the performance of due diligence artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, which complete such efforts through the optimization of repeatable tasks.
Case management is also improved with the full utilization of available tools via automated workflows and insight.
Measure Performance Metrics
Measurement is the constant driver of improvement in any case management AML program. Key performance metrics to be tracked regularly include case volume, review times, closure rates, backlog levels, and staff productivity.
An AML case management system facilitates report writing on key metrics of interest. Compliance leaders could thereby know where to direct process enhancement initiatives or case management services. Assuring that the correct data has been consistently captured underpins informed decision-making. Regularly circling back to metrics confirms that implementations have the intended impact on compliance performance over time as well.
Contact us today to discuss how our case management solutions can help optimize your program.
