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In our pKYC series we have explored the concept of pKYC and the technologies behind it, but what is it like operationally to practice this modern process and yield positive outcomes? In this final installment of the pKYC series, Jessica Cath, Head of Financial Crime Project Delivery at FINTRAIL, discusses her unique experiences and perspectives as an active practitioner in compliance to answer this question.

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September 14, 2022

pKYC Miniseries: Part 3

A large difference between traditional KYC and Perpetual KYC is the technological advancements that enhance the process to make it more efficient. In the second part of our pKYC series, Alex Pillow speaks with Delphine Masquelier, KYC Solution Manager at Quantexa, Alex Richter, Head of Customer Lifecycle Management at PassFort, and Henry Irish, Manager of Technology Strategy at Moody’s Analytics. Their discussion takes a closer look at the technologies needed for a successful Perpetual KYC program.

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September 7, 2022

pKYC Miniseries: Part 2

Chartis Research recently released KYC/AML Data Solutions, 2022: Market and Vendor Landscape, in the report, they examine key trends in this market and detail why Moody’s Analytics is positioned as the category leader with the most complete offering for KYC/AML data solutions.

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September 6, 2022

Moody's Analytics recognized as Category Leader for KYC/AML Data Solutions 2022

Are the traditional methods of periodic review things of the past? A new approach called Perpetual KYC (pKYC), offers solutions to optimize the conventional process and make it more time efficient and less expensive, providing real-time risk mitigation. In the first part of our Perpetual KYC series, host Alex Pillow is joined by Chor Teh, Moody’s Analytics Financial Crime Compliance Industry Practice Lead, to explore the definition, understanding, and implementation of Perpetual KYC.

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August 31, 2022

pKYC Miniseries: Part 1

Exponential development of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has left financial institutions and fintechs with questions about how to remain compliant while doing business with the non-traditional organizations.

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August 26, 2022

Comfort with Crypto Compliance

It is noble and important work when compliance professionals spend their days behind an office desk using sophisticated tools and processes to prevent financial crime. However, there’s another compelling story to be told about the difference one can make away from the office, deep within the trenches. This episode welcomes undercover agent and author, Robert Mazur, who has worked side-by-side with some of the world’s most notorious money launderers and drug traffickers. Be sure to grab your copy of Mazur’s latest book, The Betrayal, and listen along as he shares his experiences and the inspiration behind his work.

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August 24, 2022

Book Club: The Betrayal

Crypto may provide bad actors with yet another channel to launder funds, but could it also provide a unique set of opportunities for KYC and AML professionals to revolutionize their practices and manage risks in new ways? The third and final installment of our Crypto Series welcomes Niels Pedersen, Senior Lecturer of FinTech at The Manchester Metropolitan University, and Laurence Twelvetrees, a multiple time MLRO at crypto-focused businesses.

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August 17, 2022

Crypto Miniseries: Part 3

Outsmarting criminals preying in the crypto space - no one said it was easy. How can KYC and AML systems work with law enforcement to tackle these opponents? Our crypto series continues with part two taking a deep dive into risk mitigation and law enforcement focused on crypto. In this episode, host Alex Pillow is joined by Craig Gleeson, Senior Office for the Crypto assets Money Laundering, Bribery & Corruption Threat Team for the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, and Tom Robinson, co-founder and Chief Scientist at blockchain analytics company, Elliptic.

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August 17, 2022

Crypto Miniseries: Part 2

Like it or not, some of your global customers are likely to be engaging with cryptocurrency. Flashy media headlines highlighting the scandals related to the crypto space often create feelings of fear, anxiety, and confusion, which can muddle our understanding of the real risks associated with crypto. In the first episode of our 3-part cryptocurrency series, special guests Yana Afanasieva, Founder & CEO of Competitive Compliance and host of the podcast Compliance that Makes Sense, and Pierce Kearns, Financial Crime Consultant and cryptocurrency enthusiast, provide their takes on the perceived versus real risks related to crypto as well as the responsibility KYC professionals have to understand them.

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August 17, 2022

Crypto Miniseries: Part 1

Criminals are constantly seeking new organizations through which to launder money, and frequently target not-for-profits and charities. Consequently, you must identify registered and vetted charities as part of the know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance process. Doing so has become easier now that Moody’s Analytics Orbis includes local lists of registered and vetted charities.

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August 4, 2022

An easier way to screen charities

Those working in professional services have a regulatory and moral duty to make sure conflicts of interest don’t interfere with their obligations to customers. Using KYC best practices for due diligence helps professionals achieve compliance and control risk.

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July 28, 2022

Conflicts of interest: the compliance challenges

How do Financial Institutions determine the right RegTech vendors for them? And how do RegTech providers establish a reputation that is built on trust? The RegTech industry poses unique challenges for buyers and sellers alike. In this special bonus episode, host Alex Pillow and guest Matt Neill, Managing Director and Co-founder of Beyond, take a closer look at Beyond’s recently published guide, Leveraging RegTech in Financial Crime Compliance Programmes.

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July 27, 2022

Bonus Episode: RegTech Research Report

Unravelling complex company structures to identify ultimate beneficial owners can be difficult, owing to complex and sometimes opaque business structures. But it is an important step in protecting a firm from risk and complying with regulations.

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July 25, 2022

How to identify ultimate beneficial owners – and why they matter

Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are taking an increasingly tough stance on money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes. Customer due diligence is critical in effectively managing your organization’s risk exposure and protecting it against financial crime. Complex company structures can make knowing your customer and identifying ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) difficult. Complex trade routes are often used to launder money and conceal fraud. A report released in December 2020 by the Financial Action Task Force and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units highlights the risk indicators that denote suspicious activity associated with trade-based money laundering (TBML).

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July 21, 2022

Trade-based money laundering: do you know the signs?

Little headway has been made on the confiscation and recovery of illegally acquired assets. The EU proposes to tackle this with a new directive that would drive national strategies for member states, see greater international cooperation, and expand the mandate of asset recovery agencies.

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July 6, 2022

Asset confiscation and recovery: EU proposes a new directive

Long overlooked as important in risk management, negative news screening’s significance in combating financial crime is coming to the fore, as the Wolfsberg Group emphasizes in its FAQ for financial institutions.

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June 24, 2022

Negative news screening is intrinsic to risk management

In a world where computer hacking has become increasingly more sophisticated, how does an organization ensure it does not find itself the next victim of a financial cybercrime attack? In this episode of Moody’s Talks: KYC Decoded, leading investigative journalist and author of the recently published book The Lazarus Heist, Geoff White, breaks down the events of the 2016 Bangladesh bank heist, commonly attributed to North Korea’s cyber unit, the Lazarus Group. Listen along for a riveting account of money laundering fueled by cybercrime, the devastating consequences such crimes can bring about for victims, and the systems and controls needed to combat it.

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June 23, 2022

Book Club: The Lazarus Heist

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created challenges for regulated businesses that need to protect their reputations while complying with sanctions. Advances in digital KYC are giving firms the tools to control reputational risk, and limit fraud and other operational threats.

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June 13, 2022

Digital KYC: Managing and mitigating risks resulting from the Russia-Ukraine crisis

Bad actors use various ways to circumvent sanctions, among them are deceptive shipping practices. Such practices affect the maritime industry, and every company involved in international trade, so an awareness of them is crucial to avoiding risk.

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May 11, 2022

Evading sanctions through deceptive shipping practices

Various methods are used to circumvent sanctions. Knowing what they are and how to spot them can help you avoid doing business with sanctioned entities. Following the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, the US imposed sanctions against Russia. Since then, the country’s elite have used various strategies to protect their financial interests.

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May 4, 2022

How to spot sanctions evasion

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Could crypto actually be enabling sanctions evasion, or is this just grabbing headlines? In the final discussion of our Sanctions Miniseries, David Carlisle, VP of Policy and Regulatory affairs at blockchain and analytics company Elliptic, weighs up the validity of this question.

Sanctions Miniseries Part 4: Sanctions & Crypto

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You may have looked data up and down and back again, but have you looked at it sideways? In Part 3 of our Sanctions Miniseries, host Alex Pillow is joined by KYC expert, Graham Barrow, host of The Dark Money Files podcast. Their discussion sheds light on the networks of those who are sanctioned and the risk indicators to look for.

Sanctions Miniseries Part 3: Networks Defeat Networks

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In Part 2 of our Sanctions Miniseries, Andréas Hobbelin, Head of Anti-Money Laundering & Financial Crime Prevention at ZTL Payment Solutions, guides us beyond sanctions lists by sharing the importance of ownership and control in relation to sanctions. Without complete and accurate data, subsidiary networks are more difficult to detect, and mistakes become more likely for vendors and practitioners. This conversation highlights ways organizations can take a proactive approach to mitigating sanctions risk.

Sanctions Miniseries Part 2: Going Beyond the Lists

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a profound impact on the compliance, KYC, and supply chain industries as governments around the world have issued sanctions at a rapid pace. In this first installment of our Sanctions Miniseries, host Alex Pillow provides an overview of sanctions, the subsequent responsibilities organizations have for staying compliant – and the consequences for not.

Sanctions Miniseries Part 1: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Sanctions recently imposed against Russia are severely affecting operations, transactions, and services for businesses globally. You must understand these sanctions so that you can put effective compliance controls in place.

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April 19, 2022

How to comply with Australian sanctions against Russia

To comply with sanctions rules, you must consider ownership and control of your customers and business partners – including indirect ownership and control, which can be difficult to determine.

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April 12, 2022

Sanctions Compliance: understanding the role of indirect ownership and control

Attitudes towards AI in the KYC and AML space are often riddled with disillusionment. It begs the question, are there ways to unlock the potential of AI technologies in a more productive way when combatting financial crime?

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April 8, 2022

AI & Transparent Boxes

The Australian Senate looks to strengthen the country’s money laundering and terrorism financing laws by broadening their scope to cover many more organizations, including those in the real estate sector.

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April 5, 2022

The Tranche 2 Anti-money Laundering reforms in Australia

When it comes to analyzing the financial crime industry, are you overwhelmed by data points? The more pressing concern is likely how to gain deeper insight into data that lead to more valuable business decisions. In this episode, host Alex Pillow and Jamie Hutton, CTO of Quantexa, discuss how entity resolution can be a powerful tool on your journey toward more impactful and affective KYC.

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March 23, 2022

Entity Resolution + Data = ?

Sanctions screening is a critical part of an effective compliance program. But looking beyond current sanctions lists reveals related risks that firms must also manage.

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March 22, 2022

Sanctions Screening: go beyond the lists

The scale of the restrictions against Russia may present compliance challenges. Moody’s Analytics can help you assess and mitigate your exposure to sanctions. Our checklist provides steps you can take to comply with new sanctions.

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March 17, 2022

Sanctions Compliance Checklist

The recent Suisse Secrets data leak from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) exposed unethical business dealings within the global banking system. These leaks are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to widespread misconduct in the financial system. These suspicious transactions fuel a vast range of illegal activities like tax evasion, money laundering, drug trafficking, and modern slavery. Host Alex Pillow and Hugo Veazey, explore flaws embedded in the foundation of legal and banking systems around the globe and their devastating consequences. Listen along as they discuss the power organizations have to shift this dangerous and immoral paradigm by making systematic compliance changes to their tools, training, and accountability standards.

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March 16, 2022

Bonus Episode: Suisse Secrets Reaction

Ultimate beneficial ownership of a company is not as straightforward as it seems. This opaqueness begets a system where business structures are created legally, and yet are also the preferred vehicle for furthering financial crime like money laundering, human trafficking, and migrant smuggling. Follow along as host Alex Pillow dives deeper into the topic of UBOs with highly esteemed author and investigative journalist, Oliver Bullough, and Moody's Analytics Financial Crime Industry Practice Lead, Ted Datta.

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March 3, 2022

UBOs and Why They Matter

While unequivocally wrong, the global practice of modern slavery is yet to be completely eradicated. Host Alex Pillow is joined by Professor Zoe Trodd, Executive Director of Rights Lab, and Jakob Hahn-Petersen, Moody's Analytics KYC Product Strategist, to discuss the magnitude of the problem and the role governments, organizations, individuals, and technology can play to fight against it.

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February 15, 2022

Modern Slavery and How to Fight It

Keith Berry, General Manager of Moody’s KYC business unit, and Justyna Gudzowska, Director of Illicit Finance Policy at The Sentry share their thoughts on the demand for data and insights to help organizations better understand who they’re dong business with.

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February 9, 2022

Moody’s Analytics and The Sentry collaborate to drive greater transparency on criminal activities in business

This white paper covers the latest thinking on beneficial ownership, power and control. Find out how beneficial ownership can differ from ‘control’, how recent changes in regulations are affecting due diligence and how company ownership data can help you protect your company.

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January 27, 2022

Who are you really doing business with?

Culture, geopolitics, and media reporting all create challenges for name matching, even when software performs the matches. In the first of Moody’s Analytics KYC Anthrolinguistic Insights series, we show how GRID data and Review screening work against the background of these broader trends.

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January 25, 2022

That's not my name: challenges in KYC name matching

For companies operating in the global marketplace, especially those with large and diverse supply chains, the risk of inadvertently being involved with or implicated in modern slavery might be far greater than you realize.

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January 18, 2022

Six crucial facts you need to know about modern slavery

A brief overview of a combination of global changes transform the data ingested into our GRID database, therefore changing modern slavery-related alerts to our customers.

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January 7, 2022

Drivers of risk trends in modern slavery and human trafficking

It’s important for all companies in the financial sphere to understand AML KYC compliance solutions. But what do AML and KYC stand for, why are they important, and how do we use AML KYC compliance solutions to protect the world’s financial systems?

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December 15, 2021

What's the difference between KYC and AML

Moody’s Analytics KYC and compliance capabilities are expanding, delivering innovation and efficiencies to customers.

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December 3, 2021

Roadmap to next-generation KYC

Organizations are increasingly fighting modern slavery in supply chains, thanks to a decade of regulatory momentum. How can you eliminate parties connected to modern slavery from your network?

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December 1, 2021

Modern slavery: how to root it out of the supply chain

The Situation Modern slavery is a worldwide, profit-motivated problem that enslaves people from all walks of life and generates billions in illicit funds each year.

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November 12, 2021

Modern Slavery: A Financial Crime, A Global Humanitarian Crisis

The Pandora Papers have ignited a powerful response that has been felt around the world since their publication on 3 October 2021. Governments and the global financial community are reading the Papers with interest, looking for insights and intelligence.

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October 11, 2021

Pandora's box is open

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A recent surge of new modern slavery regulations has pushed financial institutions to update their compliance structure with an eye toward both legal obligations and risk management. Modern slavery screening is now about more than reputational risk.

Modern slavery: beyond reputational risk

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In the financial regulation industry, PEP stands for politically exposed person. It’s crucial for financial institutions to adhere to financial PEP regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. Read on to learn what a PEP is, how to screen for PEPs, and who qualifies as a PEP in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

What is a PEP?

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A 1970s law with current day ramifications. Learn about how BSA/AML compliance protects your organization

BSA AML Compliance

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In this paper, you’ll find answers to many of the questions currently being posed by compliance professionals and some additional context looking at the procedural but also the practical implications.

Put more PEP in your step

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The paper urges us to look beyond sanctions lists to find a growing number of connected and emerging risks.

Sanctions screening: Navigating today’s connected risk

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As of January 2019 we've performed one trillion screens for financial, FinTech and Fortune 500 clients. Here we share the lessons learned along the way.

12 Lessons from one trillion screens

One widely quoted estimate by the International Monetary Fund places the aggregate size of money laundering in the world at between two and five percent of global GDP1. And while the illicit nature of money laundering means no precise statistics are available, it is fair to say that bad actors have traditionally had the upper hand.

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July 1, 2021

Organized crimed disorganized compliance

Customer due diligence, or CDD, is the process of verifying customers’ identities and assessing their financial situations to understand their potential risk of involvement with financing crimes. The customer due diligence rule, also known as the CDD Final Rule, declared that a comprehensive set of risk-based customer due diligence policies are a pillar of a strong BSA/AML compliance program. Anti money laundering customer due diligence is one of the first roadblocks to financial crimes.

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June 1, 2021

Customer due diligence explained