Why is AML Compliance Important?
In 1970, Congress passed the Bank Secrecy Act as the first laws to fight money laundering in the United States. As stated by the Internal Revenue Service, the BSA requires businesses to keep records and file reports that are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, and regulatory matters. In order for businesses to achieve BSA compliance, they are required to implement an Anti-Money Laundering program.
AML compliance programs are implemented by government entities and financial institutions to detect and protect against criminal activities such as money laundering, fraud and tax evasion. Risk assessment is a crucial step in building an AML program; since every organization has a different set of AML risks, they must take into consideration their products, services, customers and geographic location in order to tailor their program with processes, procedures and technologies to their individual risk profile.
AML(Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC(Know Your Customer)
KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations were introduced in 2001 as part of The U.S. Patriot Act, where KYC became mandatory for all banks in the United States. KYC regulations fall under an organization’s AML program and are intended to prevent businesses and organizations by criminal elements for money laundering. As an essential part of onboarding new banking customers, KYC guidelines involve verifying a customer’s identity and identifying the specific risks associated in doing business with that customer.
Why Melissa?
When it comes to identity verification, fraud and anti-money laundering executives often face challenges in making the banking experience smooth and seamless for customers. Personator, Melissa’s Identity Verification service, is designed to meet stringent international compliance obligations and is easily tailored to specific risk management requirements for fast and secure customer onboarding. The solution includes identity, ID and document verification, age authentication and global watchlist screening to establish the identity of a consumer - giving organizations the confidence in knowing their customers are who they say they are.
For 40 years, Melissa has offered leading contact data quality, enrichment and identity verification solutions, helping organizations around the world proactively manage the quality of their data with best-of-breed solutions that clean, verify, update, dedupe and enrich customer contact data.