Bridging the Gap in FinCrime Compliance with a Bottom-Up Approach

Reform develops technology for FinCrime Operations based on the input of its domain experts. These are FinCrime specialists with more than 20 years experience of managing the legacy platforms, either with a banking background in FinCrime operators, or from a vendor’s perspective, as system integrator or consultant.

They have all hands-on experience with systems designed with the constraints of previous generations of technology and based on the initial requirements and expectations of regulators. Operations had to adapt to the systems, which were designed from a tech perspective, often initiated as a tech solution looking for a problem to solve. This approach has also been applied in the development of the first iterations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions.

The Problem with Top-Down Approaches

For a complex niche like Financial Crime Compliance, this method lacks nuance and often misaligns with the real needs of practitioners. Financial Crime is a complex area, with numerous and very specific verticals and processes; it needs a lot of flexibility to adapt to the changing nature of financial crime.

In FinCrime Compliance, this leads to operations being under-served, forcing them to handle cumbersome processes like scenario tuning and threshold setting on their own. Legacy platforms are often referred to as “un-cooperative,” compelling operations staff to perform repetitive manual tasks with little added value, thereby misallocating scarce skills and resources.

A Bottom-Up Solution

Would it not be more appropriate to integrate the insights and experiences of compliance professionals into the development of FinCrime solutions?

At Reform, we believe we should design the next generation technology by grounding it in the realities of daily operations, to span a wider net over the challenges facing compliance operators and covering all areas and processes where automation and optimisation are not provided by the legacy platforms.