Financial Crime World

Title: Estonian Banks Unite to Combat Financial Crime through Salv Bridge Network

Challenge of Financial Crime

The rise of financial crime, such as money laundering, is a global concern. According to Europol, criminals move an estimated €2-4tn through legitimate banking structures each year, with less than 2% of these funds successfully intercepted 1. In response, Estonia’s business community is championing a novel approach to combatting financial crime through the Salv Bridge Estonia pilot.

What is Salv Bridge?

Salv Bridge is a collaborative crime-fighting network that connects banks and fintechs to exchange and enrich data on suspicious activities. This powerful tool enables financial institutions to work together, tackling financial crime risks while reducing operational costs. The network is fully encrypted and compliant with data protection regulations 2.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Combating fraud, AML, and sanctions violations: By pooling resources and intelligence from various institutions, Salv Bridge enhances overall financial security.
  • Reduced operational costs: By sharing data and collaboration, participating institutions save resources, focusing on risk management rather than duplicate investigations.
  • Encryption and data protection: The network is fully encrypted and complies with data protection regulations, ensuring privacy and security.

Participating Institutions and Results

Ten Estonian banks, representing 99% of the domestic market, participated in the Salv Bridge pilot over a nine-month period from July 2021 to March 2022. Under the supervision of Estonia’s Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (FSA), Data Protection Inspectorate (DPI), and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), these institutions exchanged information on suspicious activities 3.

The collaborative investigations, which targeted fraud, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and sanctions, are estimated to have prevented €3m from reaching criminal-controlled accounts. Salisbank’s Head of AML, Raul Vahtra, shared that instant response times are crucial in preventing funds from criminals 4.

Real Impact in Estonia

Fraud Prevention

By sharing intelligence effectively and quickly, participating banks have been able to stop at least 70 fraudulent cases in the past three months, with successful freezing and returns of funds to customers 4.

AML Investigations

Salv Bridge has significantly improved intelligence investigations and prosecutions for AML cases by contributing to more effective intelligence investigations and reducing time-delay issues 5.

Sanctions Compliance

Salv Bridge has provided two clear use cases for sanctions: B2B correspondence significantly reduces false positives and name matches while better mapping politically exposed persons (PEPs) or their relatives & close associates (RCAs) of sanctioned individuals minimizes future exposure to fines or reputational damage 5.

Data Protection and Privacy

With the implementation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), private-to-private financial crime intelligence sharing across EU states and the UK is now legally sound. By adhering to data minimization practices and ensuring that the data exchanged corresponds with principles of necessity and proportionality, Salv Bridge respects privacy and data protection 2.

Future Outlook

The Salv Bridge Estonia pilot has experienced unparalleled success, leading all ten Estonian banks to agree to extend their participation. There is also interest from potential members outside Estonia in joining a broader, pan-European Salv Bridge network 6. Several non-bank members, including fintechs, payment service providers (PSPs), and money service businesses (MSBs), have already joined, further extending Salv Bridge’s reach across the Baltics and the UK.

Joining the Salv Bridge Network

If you wish to join the Salv Bridge network and contribute to cross-European financial collaboration and investigations, please join our waitlist.

[1]: Europol, ‘European Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (ESOCTA) 2018’. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/ESOCTA_2018_Full_report.pdf<|im_sep|>(). [2]: Salv, E. (2022). Salv Bridge: A new way to combat financial crime. Retrieved from https://salv.co/salv-bridge/<|im_sep|>(). [3]: Estonian Financial Supervision Authority.* (n.d.). Salv Bridge Estonia. Retrieved from https://www.fi.ee/eng/newsandpublications/pressreleases/salv-bridge-estonia<|im_sep|>(). [4]: Salisbank. (2022). Salisbank Head of AML discusses Salv Bridge Estonia. Retrieved from https://www.salisbank.ee/en/news-and-press-releases/press-releases/press-releases-article/salisbank-aml-head-discusses-salv-bridge-eston<|im_sep|>(). [5]: Data Protection Inspectorate (DPI) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). (2022). Salv Bridge Estonia. Retrieved from https://dpi.ee/en/home/page/salv-bridge-estonia<|im_sep|>(). [6]: Salv. (2022). Join Salv Bridge Network. Retrieved from https://salv.co/salv-bridge/join/<|im_sep|>().