Estonian Financial Institutions Unite Against Money Laundering Through Salv Bridge Network

The battle against money laundering is an ongoing and costly one. With an estimated €2-4tn (€2 trillion to €4 trillion) moving illegally through banking structures every year, and less than 2% of it being successfully intercepted by authorities [1], quick action is crucial in preventing financial crimes and identifying those behind them.

Enter Salv Bridge, a groundbreaking collaboration between banks, fintechs, and financial regulators, designed to strengthen the global fight against financial crimes. Launched in cooperation with Estonian banking leaders, this initiative is gaining significant traction and making headway in a critical mission.

What is Salv Bridge?

Salv Bridge is a cutting-edge, encrypted, and fully compliant network enabling secure data sharing between financial institutions. Its primary goal is to facilitate financial crime investigation and prevention, empowering members to identify and address suspicious transactions and potential money laundering activities.

During a nine-month pilot initiative in 2021, ten of Estonia’s leading banks—representing over 99% of the domestic market—joined forces through Salv Bridge. These collaborative investigations covered various financial crime areas, including fraud, anti-money laundering (AML), and sanctions.

Impactful Outcomes in Estonia

The collaborative investigations have produced impressive results, preventing the disposal of €3m (€3 million) in customers’ funds from reaching criminal-controlled accounts. This has thwarted advance-fee fraud, scams (such as investment, romance, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and CEO impersonation schemes), and significantly reduced major time-delays in both AML and sanctions cases [2].

Moreover, out of every four urgent requests submitted via the Salv Bridge network, one is responded to within five minutes, with 75% of collaborative investigations receiving replies within the hour — a significant improvement compared to the industry standard response delay of 24 to 48 hours [2].

Fighting Criminal Networks Across Borders

Criminal organizations expand their reach across borders and operate in sophisticated networks, necessitating a collaborative response. Europol’s 2021 Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment report highlights the importance of a “network to beat a network” in countering these complex threats [3]. Although Salv Bridge’s journey against financial crimes is still in its infancy, its powerful network demonstrates potential in driving real change.

Addressing Fraud and Scam Cases

In cases involving fraud and scams, Salv Bridge can make all the difference. Swedbank’s Head of AML, Raul Vahtra, reports that a quick response to potential fraud instances is crucial in stopping funds from falling into the wrong hands [2]. Through Salv Bridge, Swedbank has terminated at least 70 fraudulent cases during the past three months, protecting customers from harm and recovering their lost funds [2].

Strengthening Anti-money Laundering and Enhancing Investigations

Salv Bridge’s impact on anti-money laundering cases has been significant. By streamlining the process of filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), it allows Estonian banks to file more effective and comprehensive reports, thereby enabling the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit to resolve more investigations [2].

Improving Sanctions Compliance and Transparency

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Estonian banks’ cooperation in the Salv Bridge network has led to a surge in sanctions violation investigations. This collaboration has resulted in two key areas of improvement: reducing the time spent on resolving false positives during name-match checks and enhancing mapping capabilities to keep institutions updated on politically exposed persons (PEPs) and their close associates (RCAs)—reducing the risk of exposure to financial loss and reputational damage [2].

Privacy and Data Protection in Salv Bridge

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) permits private entities to share financial crime intelligence across Europe and the UK. All shared data must meet Data Protection practices, such as necessity, proportionality, and data minimization [3]. Salv Bridge upholds these principles at its core, ensuring it can operate legally within the European Union and potentially beyond.

Looking to the Future of Salv Bridge

The successful Salv Bridge Estonia pilot—originally designed as a six-to-nine-month project—has garnered extraordinary results, leading the ten Estonian banks to commit to an extended partnership in the network [2]. Parties from outside Estonia have already expressed interest in joining an extended, pan-European Salv Bridge network [2].

Salv Bridge’s future aims to expand its membership beyond Estonia, providing banks, fintechs, payment service providers, and money service businesses from across the Baltics and the United Kingdom with the opportunity to join the fight against financial crimes [2]. The proposed European legislation for information sharing across EU member states is expected to strengthen Salv Bridge’s foundation, enabling even more effective cross-border collaboration.

If you are interested in joining the Salv Bridge network, you can join the waitlist here.

[1] Europol, “European Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment,” 2022, https://www.europol.europa.eu/activities-services/publications/european-serious-and-organised-crime-threat-assessment-esocita-2022. [2] Salv, “Salv Bridge Estonia Pilot,” Accessed March 31, 2023, https://salv.com/salvbridge/. [3] Europol, “European Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment,” 2022, https://www.europol.europa.eu/activities-services/publications/european-serious-and-organised-crime-threat-assessment-esocita-2022.