What is Anti-Money Laundering?

Why is AML Compliance Important?

Introduced 2002, AML regulations were put in place as part of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to fight money laundering in the United Kingdom. Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) they both share the responsibility in investigating money laundering offenses and ensuring all businesses abide by the POCA Act. Banks and financial institutions must put AML controls in place 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 organisation 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)

The Know Your Customer (KYC) aspect became mandatory for all banks and financial institutions in the UK to fulfill Anti Money Laundering (AML) Regulations. KYC Verification generally falls under an organisation’s AML program and are intended to prevent businesses and organisations 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. 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, biometric matching and liveness checks, age authentication, proof of address and global watchlist screening to establish the identity of a consumer - giving organisations the confidence in knowing their customers are who they say they are.

For more than 35 years, Melissa has offered leading contact data quality, enrichment and identity verification solutions, helping organisations 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.