Current estimates have the amount laundered globally each year at a staggering £1.8trn – 3% of total GDP. With this considered, what role can a strong compliance programme play in tackling this?
According to Clausematch, the UK has the second highest sum of money laundering each year, at an estimated £88bn. This is only topped by the US, who see £216.5bn in money laundering per annum. With this considered, the company claimed that it is ‘only fair’ that ensuring organisations have strong AML controls in place to prevent financial crime, which is a high priority for regulators globally.
The company stated that many of the money laundering scenarios currently being seen worldwide could have been either minimised or fully prevented if these financial institutions had a robust compliance programme in place.
This, Clausematch states, is why financial institutions across a plethora of sizes and profiles are turning to RegTech and policy management technology to effectively create, manage and disseminate their policies and procedures to their workforce.
How else does RegTech and policy management technology help organisations? Clausematch suggested that it helps that adapt faster to comply with new rules, “Companies can achieve this with intelligent mapping that helps answer the question:, “what specific policies and procedures need to be updated when a new regulation is introduced?”, as well as automated workflows for drafting, reviewing and approval cycles.”
In addition, these technologies can help to prove compliance. Many smart RegTech solutions, the company claims, allow users to evidence compliance, with full audit trails in place to show regulators that an organisation is doing all they can to prevent financial crime.
RegTech and policy management technologies can also help drive staff engagement and adherence. The firm said, “Having policies and procedures that nobody reads or understands is almost worse than not having policies at all. A policy distribution solution that makes sure staff can easily access all policies that are relevant to their job function, from anywhere, can be a game-changer.”
Furthermore, these technologies can help to cut compliance costs and boost efficiency. In this respect, the firm believes that by automating time-consuming processes, businesses can free up their existing workforce to focus on real compliance matters without having to invest in further resources. They can also save the time of their most valuable resources and senior executives by streamlining review and approval processes.
Read the full post here.