The Federal Reserve predicted in 2022 that the benefits of instant payments would be critical for financial institutions seeking to remain competitive. That prediction has quickly become reality, with nearly $500bn in real-time payments processed daily.
According to Workfusion, a large share of these transactions are cross-border, which provides a major revenue opportunity for banks but also heightens exposure to financial crime. Fraudsters and money launderers are eager to exploit this fast-growing payments ecosystem, making compliance more complex for banks and FinTechs.
Cross-border payments are far riskier than domestic transfers, often generating a much larger volume of compliance alerts. According to the Federal Reserve, anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing requirements remain among the most persistent challenges in global payments. SWIFT has previously highlighted how poor data quality in payment messages compounds these issues. A misspelt name, for example, can trigger costly delays, missed shipments, and disruption across global supply chains as banks struggle to trace fragmented information across multiple time zones.
Despite these difficulties, the advantages of real-time and cross-border payments are undeniable. Transactions that once took days can now be settled in seconds, benefitting both businesses and consumers. The pressing question for financial institutions is how to uphold sanctions compliance and AML obligations without creating friction for clients.
One answer is AI-driven automation. WorkFusion has developed an AI Agent named Tara, designed to enhance transaction screening by automating real-time payment checks. Tara can reduce risk and improve the customer experience by automating up to 70% of false-positive alert adjudication. Crown Agents Bank, a UK-based specialist in foreign exchange and cross-border payments, has integrated Tara into its screening process to manage growing alert volumes. Crown Agents Bank SVP and head of AFC operations Shyam Kakad said, “Because our business is growing rapidly and our payment alert volumes are increasing, we needed a solution that could help us scale exponentially without added costs. By integrating WorkFusion’s AI Agent, Tara, into our transaction screening processes, we are reducing the false positive burden on our team, streamlining operations, and enhancing the speed and accuracy of payment processing. This is another example of our dedication to leveraging technology and AI to better serve our clients and navigate the complexities of global financial compliance.”
The bank has chosen a gradual adoption strategy, starting with lower levels of automation and planning to increase as confidence grows. Tara offers configurability options that allow institutions to adjust how much automation they apply, providing flexibility that suits the risk appetite of different financial institutions. WorkFusion noted during testing that banks and FinTechs have varying levels of comfort with new technologies, so this staged approach helps them adopt AI at their own pace.
Crown Agents Bank is already seeing measurable results. Tara reduces analysts’ manual workload by around 30%, allowing teams to prioritise more complex investigations. The AI Agent has been set to automatically resolve 30% of false positives, with a target of doubling that figure in the near term. It also enables immediate real-time reviews of alerts, consistent quality of decision-making, and defensible audit trails, all of which support regulatory compliance.
This type of deployment aligns with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) guidance, which encourages the use of advanced technology for sanctions compliance in real-time and cross-border payments. With AI automation now demonstrating tangible benefits in this space, banks and FinTechs are better positioned to balance speed, compliance, and customer satisfaction in an increasingly complex payments landscape.
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