Australian bank reduces false positives by more than 47% with SRI AML TM

The challenge

A leading Australian financial institution offering insurance and banking services in Australia and New Zealand was struggling with monitoring the transactions of their customer base of approximately 1 million people. As a subsidiary of a larger institution, their risk levels when monitoring transactions were prompting many false positives. As such, efficiency and economic savings were required.

The finance industry and its regulations regarding anti-money laundering (AML) are becoming increasingly complex, so a modern, dynamic, and intuitive AML transaction monitoring product was required to improve the bank’s effectiveness in fighting financial crime. With the institution aware that bad actors were increasingly using AI tools to test and threaten processes of banks globally, the organization was interested in seeing if AI could help them combat this problem in return.

SymphonyAI solution

The financial institution became interested in the SRI AML TM (Transaction Monitoring) Overlay because of its ability to boost existing transaction monitoring software without a complete overhaul of its systems. SRI AML TM offers organizations the ability to use AI to identify emerging criminal behaviors while reducing false positives by going beyond rules-based detection.

Uncovering complex anomalies in batches of transactions, the product was an excellent choice for solving the organization’s primary problem. As well as this, SRI AML TM can uncover suspicious activity that an existing system misses, immediately enhancing a company’s understanding of entities and their changing risk profiles.

Working closely with the institution, SymphonyAI was able to deploy the Overlay according to internal timeframes and expectations, with small challenges overcome quickly via excellent communication on both sides.

The result

Using the SRI AML TM Overlay across its Australia and New Zealand services, the financial institution saw a >47% reduction in false positive rates. Featuring fully explainable and transparent AI models, the organization enjoys a low-risk introduction to using AI in AML that showcases a commitment to proactive financial crime prevention.

The use of AI has seen a marked decrease in the workload of investigation teams, which improves productivity elsewhere within the business. Investigators are now able to better use their time investigating genuine threats and improving the institution’s defences.

The future

With SRI AML TM continuing to provide results for the organization, other areas of their system could be improved using AI, allowing the institution to enjoy continuous Always-on Compliance.

These include SRI Screening or integrating the capabilities of other aspects of Symphony Risk Intelligence (SRI) for more effective customer due diligence and payment fraud protection.

In this way, the financial institution will ensure that it is improving its defenses while also future-proofing against any further professional challenges before they arise.