Automation can improve AML compliance but won’t replace human touch

There is as much an art to anti-money laundering (AML) compliance as science.

Sometimes, good compliance boils down to a suspicion by a trained, experienced compliance officer that something is off and requires more investigation. A small anomaly could be indicative of a larger problem. What appears to be an innocent mistake might actually be fraud.

What gets in the way of these moments of clarity, AML experts say, is the cumbersome and manual processes most AML compliance workflows use. So much time is spent sifting through red flags that turn out to be false positives that little time is left for AML compliance professionals to apply their expertise.