Banking on better financial crime outcomes
Financial Crime Operate services help a major bank reduce select case review times by 75% while maintaining business continuity
When it comes to combatting financial crime, combining seasoned talent with leading-edge technology is critical if you hope to operate with confidence. Learn why global financial institutions—including the bank featured in this case study trust our Financial Crime Operate team to deliver continuous advantage.
If knowledge is power, that’s doubly true in the world of financial crime. That’s partly why financial institutions are required to comply with stringent Customer Due Diligence (CDD) regulations. So, when a major bank came under scrutiny from key stakeholders regarding their existing processes, they knew it was time to invest in a next-generation solution. Enter Financial Crime Operate services from Deloitte.
Seeking greater risk insights
The underlying issue first came to light as the bank assessed the effectiveness of their CDD Operations. Through this review, key stakeholders identified a backlog of CDD reviews that were required for customers who were at higher risk of engaging in money laundering/terrorism financing. To help solve this challenge, the bank went in search of a partner that could deliver greater risk insights, while improving productivity and help the bank reduce their costs.
The partner they selected was Deloitte, who rapidly mobilized a cross-border multi-disciplinary team with expertise in anti-money laundering, risk assessment, operations excellence, quality assurance, and project management. Operating out of onshore and offshore delivery centers in both Australia and India, the team drew on experience from other large-scale Financial Crime Operate projects to deploy a solution tailored to the bank’s specific needs.
While the primary goal was to conduct enhanced due diligence reviews of the bank’s high-risk customers in a timely manner, it was important to do so without impairing the customer experience, interfering with business continuity, or compromising on a high-quality outcomes. The bank felt Deloitte’s Financial Crime Operate services would help them accomplish these goals by giving them access to a flexible combination of talent, technology, and data analytics to drive quality execution at scale, anywhere in the world.
Factors in focus
- A need for high-quality, timely CDD execution capable of supporting risk management decision-making.
- A desire to rely on external Operate services as a solution, rather than internal talent and tools.
- A focus on improving productivity and reducing costs, without impairing the customer experience.
Embedding continuous advantage
Like many financial institutions, prior to engaging Deloitte the bank was struggling with ineffective legacy technology, CDD backlogs, and difficulty retaining the specialized talent these roles demand. Financial Crime Operate services from Deloitte promised to resolve these issues by delivering a fully integrated, end-to-end CDD solution overseen by seasoned Financial Crime experts.
With flexible access to global talent, Financial Crime Operate services would allow the bank to scale up or down based on their changing business requirements and spikes in demand. At the same time, fit-for-purpose technology and data accelerators would allow them to drive efficiency in execution, enforce quality standards, and obtain access to on-demand insights and reporting.
Taken together, this blend of capabilities empowered the bank to strengthen their risk decision-making and achieve the required outcomes. Moving forward with Deloitte Financial Crime Operate services, the bank is embedding continuous advantage in their financial crime operations and is positioned to operate with continuous confidence.
Insights to inspire
- Recognize that many legacy technologies result in poor quality, rework, and inefficiencies in on-going customer due diligence. Investing in a partner who can deliver leading technology and data analytics can deliver tangible cost savings.
- Be strategic about execution options that give you the flexibility needed to get ahead of regulatory scrutiny and meet stakeholder demands.
- To benefit from increased automation and analytics, consider Financial Crime Operate services that can help you worry less about technology solutions and focus more on your core business.
Conclusion
Thanks to their data analytics capabilities, the Deloitte Operate team was able to significantly streamline the due diligence process by determining that 25% of the cases in the population exhibited lower risk factors and therefore could be subject to an expedited review. This risk-based approach reduced the handling time by roughly 75%, compared to a standard case review time by the client’s BAU team.
This accelerated approach, coupled with strong collaboration between the client’s internal teams and the Deloitte team, ultimately enabled the bank to review the population of high-risk customers within the required timeframe—a process that engaged multiple business units spanning financial crime operations, quality assurance and standards, audit, as well as the respective business units.
Beyond realizing cost savings of over 30%, Deloitte developed a quality assurance methodology and risk-based approach aligned with the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) program requirements that can be applied to additional customer populations. Going forward, the bank believes ongoing reliance on Deloitte’s Financial Crime Operate services will help them further enhance their operational capabilities, uncover opportunities for additional cost savings, and put them on a track of continuous improvement and innovation.
The achievements
- Process improvements with a risk-based approach that reduced average handling time by roughly 75% for select cases and reduced costs by over 30%.
- Provided the financial crime expertise required to confidently meet all quality and regulatory standards for AML operations.
- Delivery of end-to-end CDD process, including screening, quality control, enabling customer outreach, and risk decision-making.
- A scalable operating model that supports resource flexibility, allowing for rapid production increases if required.
Let’s talk Financial Crime Operate
Are your financial crime operations driven by risk insights, innovation and continuous improvement?
Discover how Deloitte’s Financial Crime Operate services and our worldwide team of industry-focused professionals can support you every step of the way—and help you respond with confidence no matter what the future brings. Contact us to get the conversation started.
