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Absa is leading the way in AI in finance innovation with a focus on enhanced risk detection and strengthened operational efficiency.
Company
Industry
Applications
Results
reduction in false positive alerts
highest scoring risks prioritized
new risk identification hit rate achieved
Absa Bank, Africa’s foremost financial institution, recognized the need for an innovative approach to combat evolving threats. Demonstrating their knowledge of finance industry trends and commitment to leadership, Absa partnered with SymphonyAI to explore the transformative potential of AI built for financial services.
The financial services industry faces escalating threats from criminals that use advanced technologies to exploit vulnerabilities. Absa sought an AI solution that would outperform their existing transaction monitoring system to enhance their anti-financial crime capabilities, push the boundaries of their team’s productivity, and significantly reduce risk.
Absa’s vision was clear: achieve unparalleled alert quality, dramatically improve risk detection, and uncover valuable new use cases across the institution—all while solidifying their position as an industry pioneer.
Absa understood the potential of AI in finance, but required concrete proof of its impact and sought to validate its effectiveness with its own robust datasets. Absa decided to partner with SymphonyAI, who developed a series of proof-of-concepts, designed to demonstrate the tangible benefits of AI technology—from improved alert efficiency and effectiveness to significant cost savings.
The approach centered on four key steps.
Step 1
Absa provided masked data to SymphonyAI, enabling secure data analysis and the development of AI models and software features tailored to the financial institution’s unique needs.
Step 2
Absa championed advancements to significantly improve and accelerate new risk detection beyond their already impressive capabilities.
Step 3
A key objective of the Absa team was to dramatically reduce false positive alerts, while maintaining their identification of all known suspicious activity, to optimize operations.
Step 4
Absa facilitated the integration of five distinct language learning models, spanning from manual to supervised analysis, alongside the development of new features to further enhance the project’s success.
The outcomes of the project surpassed Absa’s ambitious expectations, leading to their strategic decision to fully implement the solution and underscoring the institution’s commitment to innovating the financial services industry.
Key achievements driven by Absa included:
Absa, with SymphonyAI’s support, successfully reduced false positive alerts by an impressive 77%, while still capturing all suspicious activity identified by their existing transaction monitoring system.
Absa’s proactive approach led to the discovery of many potential new risks, which were meticulously filtered down to the 200 highest-scoring risks based on transaction amount, average score, and maximum score.
Absa quickly identified new risks and improved upon slower, manual rule adjustments and reporting methods. The improved risk identification hit rate of 10.5% proved substantially more effective than relying on rules alone.
Absa’s leadership in this project led to the partnership winning an International Compliance Association Technology Partner of the Year award—a testament to their impactful work.
“Absa has always prided itself on being a leader in the finance industry. We take risk management extremely seriously and by working with SymphonyAI, we are improving our productivity, becoming more effective, and reducing risk in an innovative and sensible manner. This will benefit the bank for many years to come.”
Nic Swingler
Head of Financial Crime, Absa
The resounding success of this project paved the way for Absa to plan additional proof-of-concepts in critical areas such as entity resolution and watchlist management. Absa continues to adapt to evolving industry demands. The institution is a true innovator in the ongoing fight against financial crime.
Performance at scale starts with AI that works where decisions are made. Absa proves what’s possible with industry-trained, vertical AI that is purpose-built to solve the financial service industry’s biggest challenges. Ready to move faster, act smarter, and drive limitless results? Let’s talk.
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