Security

Human tracking remains big concern for financial institutions

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September 30, 2021

Human trafficking is one of the top concerns for compliance specialists in the financial industry, according to a study from BAE Systems entitled "The state of anti-money laundering 2021." In addition, 27% of banks said it was a serious concern in the study, according to a press release.

Compliance professionals said that that compliance isn't getting to the root of the issue, while many banks are facing budget cuts of up to 25%. In addition, 62% of all respondents in the survey said money laundering is harder to spot over the last 12 months.

The respondents suggested one way to solve this is through shared intelligent and collaboration, with 40% saying that they would benefit from a central money laundering group to share intelligent and 92% believe that a lack of collaboration between law enforcement, financial institutions and policy makes prevents progress on this issue.

"For many financial institutions, getting a handle on money laundering is now simply about ensuring they avoid fines or reputational damage," Enda Shirely, head of compliance at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, said in the release. "Stopping these incidents at the point of transaction is really still only a small part of tackling the problem. There is work to do to look deeper into how we can look for early indicators of these often life changing offenses. For real change to happen, collaboration across the anti-money laundering industry is essential. This means law enforcement, policy makers, financial institutions and technology consistently working together more closely to share insights and intelligence."