The landscape for banking services has changed beyond recognition in the last few years. The award of the first retail banking license for 100 years to Metro Bank in 2010, opened the flood gates, and since then ever more challenger banks and fintechs are disrupting the market. Many challenger banks are targeting specific customer segments […]
Screening for sanctions names is tricky. As well as people trying to hide their identity by using an alias, names can be presented for screening in all sorts of different ways. Matching a name on a sanctions list requires a screening system with complex algorithms that will identify the match without also creating a significant […]
Cryptocurrency has been on the rise of popularity ever since the invention of Bitcoin in 2009. Following the 2008 financial crisis, it was created to allow people to have full independent control of their money. Meaning the avoidance of all “typical” avenues of financial management, including the reliance of banks and or governments. Cryptocurrencies work […]
At SQA Consulting, we provide assurance and advisory services to many Financial Institutions (FIs) to help them manage their financial crime risk. Focusing on screening and transaction monitoring, our consultants have years of hands-on experience in banks and other FIs. Over the years, we have worked with many of the world’s leading FIs to test […]
Following on from our previous article on adverse media, let’s assume for now that you wish to include adverse media checks as part of your AML controls. A sensible starting point is to define what you will use as the source of the adverse media information to be reviewed as part of your processes. A […]
A few of our clients have expressed a bit of confusion about the ‘UK Sanctions List’ issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and how this differs from the ‘Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets in the UK’ issued by HMT/the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Whilst the HMT Consolidated List has been in […]
