News

Hungary's largest bank signs with Norkom to fight money laundering, terrorism financing

September 1, 2009

Leuven, Belgium-based Norkom Technologies has signed a deal with OTP Bank, the largest bank in Hungary, to provide its anti-money laundering Watch List Management solutions.

According to a news release, Norkom's solutions will be implemented in OTP Bank's four banking operations to enhance the bank's defenses against financial crime and ensure compliance with national and international regulations, including the third European Union Money Laundering Directive.

The directive requires financial institutions to implement a risk-based approach to the management of their AML compliance operations, matching the degree of risk presented by each customer with an appropriate and variable level of monitoring activity, investigation and prioritization.

The implementation of Norkon's AML and WLM solutions represents a major upgrade of OTP's anti-money laundering technologies, replacing the system that was developed internally and which has been in operation for the past few years, says Gabor Kanyo, OTP's head of compliance:

Norkom was an easy and logical choice for us, due to its vast experience in implementing best-of-breed financial crime and compliance solutions for some of the largest financial institutions in the world, a reputation that is supported by a highly referenceable client base and a dominant position in Central and Eastern Europe.

The AML solution allows OTP to monitor and analyze every transaction and customer interaction across its customer base for suspicious and potentially criminal activity. When unusual activity is identified, prioritized alerts will be automatically issued to a team of investigators. The WLM solution will alert OTP if an entity that attempts a transaction with the bank is listed on any of the industry's watch lists.