A Full-Featured AML-as-a-Service System under a Tight Deadline

Challenge: Bring Newly Autonomous Insurance Company into AML Compliance

Facing a challenging time in the industry, a leading insurance company in Australia secured a divestiture by a minority stakeholder, whose business the company had acquired. The move raised capital but sacrificed its Anti Money Laundering program, which the divesting company provided. With divestiture approaching, the company risked falling out of compliance.

Solution: Navigate a Narrow Timeline and Stand Up a New AMLaaS Program

Despite navigating significant data complexity issues, Zencos stood up a new AML program on schedule and scaled it to suit their needs. Zencos implemented its AML-as-a-Service solution with a holistic perspective that ensured the insurance company received the full value of its investment backed by expert ongoing 24/7 manage services.

Results: Our Client Emerged with a Full Featured AMLaaS Program

Facing a demanding deadline to keep their business in good legal standing, the company gained a fully compliant AML/Counter-Terrorism Financing program backed by expert 24/7 managed services. The solution protects the company’s reputation with three pillars: Ongoing transaction monitoring, sanction screening, and customer risk assessment.

Based in Australia, a global life insurance and superannuation group that currently manages over $350 billion of assets for more than 10 million policyholders faced a challenging industry climate coming out of the pandemic. Seeking greater stability and flexibility, the company secured vital capital for growth with the divestiture of a minority stakeholder.

However, this also meant the company would lose access to its AML/CTF program, which was provided by its soon-to-be-former subsidiary. Without the ability to monitor and screen transactions for suspicious activity and known bad actors, the company risked costly fines and incalculable damage to its reputation.

Once the closing date went into effect, the company would fall out of compliance with international regulations. As a result, the institution needed a team to stand up a new AML solution that suited its international requirements — and fast.

The Zencos AMLaaS Solution

The insurance group’s divesting company is a SAS customer, which made the organization an ideal client for the Zencos AMLaaS Solution. The solution is powered by SAS and enhanced by Zencos. Zencos has been a SAS partner for over 20 years and is the 2022 SAS ANZ partner of the year. 

Zencos AMLaaS offered an optimal solution for the insurance group. Once deployed, the system delivers the same capabilities as those of much larger institutions.  Plus, once customized to suit the company’s needs, AMLaaS offers the security of a 24/7 team to provide expert managed services..

As the work began in the fall of 2021, the company faced significant data complexity issues within their records that needed to be resolved before we could implement the new solution. Fortunately, data science is in our DNA. 

We offered the agility to accommodate the company’s need to resolve its data issues while ensuring the project moved forward. We prepared sample data to work with the new AML solution while the company repaired its data, and remained flexible enough to navigate these issues and still meet a strict deadline for compliance.

A New, Fully Functional System to Ensure Compliance and Flexibility for the Future

Faced with a tight window to acquire its own AML/CTF solution in time for the close of a divestiture, the insurance company’s compliance capabilities remained in good standing. Since the system went live in early 2022, the institution has the confidence of using a full-featured AML solution that includes transaction monitoring, sanction screening, and risk assessment for both customers and employees.

With Zencos providing ongoing managed services support, the institution has emerged from its divestiture stronger than when it began. Now, the company enters a more flexible future, knowing its AML efforts are in good hands. 

Whatever deadline or data complication your institution may face, we should talk about your next steps going forward.