Sanctions Screening Tools and Technologies in Ghana: A Media Article
Challenges of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions Compliance
Financial institutions in Ghana are facing significant challenges in complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions regulations. The increasing complexity of regulations, growing businesses, and ongoing inefficiency mitigation have made it essential for these institutions to adapt quickly and proactively.
Manual Tasks: A Major Challenge
One of the major challenges faced by financial institutions is navigating highly manual tasks such as alert reviews and clearance, as well as paper instrument transaction processing. These tasks are not only inefficient but also prone to errors, which can lead to potential billions in fines for violations of US economic sanctions.
Adopting Automated Solutions
To mitigate these inefficiencies and achieve compliance, solutions like optical character recognition (OCR), native language processing (NLP), robotic process automation (RPA), AI, and machine learning are being adopted. These automated tools can help increase efficiency, reduce manual data entry, capture a higher percentage of productive alerts, and save resources and operating costs.
The Challenges with Paper Screening
Traditional methods of screening simply cannot keep pace with modern business demands. The manual nature of processing paper instruments paired with the sheer volume of transactions creates limitless potential for error due to complex data extraction and analysis, screening alert review, and record keeping.
Some of the current challenges include:
- Data manipulation challenges due to complex procedures
- Increased risk of incorrect or incomplete data
- Data entry errors impacting filters and effectiveness
- High numbers of false positives and duplicates due to screening irrelevant data
- Slowly generated, fragmented, paper-based audit trails
- Limited and manual controls
The Benefits of Moving to Automated Solutions
Financial institutions that adopt new, automated technologies can reap a number of benefits. These include:
- Ability to quickly and proactively adapt to increased volumes and regulatory expectations
- Increased efficiency of end-to-end processing with more automated data transformation downstream
- Higher percentage of productive alerts captured by screening systems utilizing more accurate data
- Potential resource and operating cost savings by automating processes such as data extraction, manipulation, and analysis
Automated Solutions that Can Help Alleviate Paper Screening Challenges
Several automated solutions can help alleviate paper screening challenges. These include:
- Optical character recognition (OCR) for data extraction and analysis
- Advanced text analytics and natural language processing (NLP) for replacing manual paper instrument analysis and extraction procedures
- Robotic process automation (RPA) for automating online screening processes and evidence gathering
- Intelligent process automation (IPA) for post-alert generation, machine learning, and automated match resolution techniques
Implementing Automated Solutions
When it comes to innovating and automating screening processes, financial institutions will need to determine which automation opportunities are most pertinent, given their current processes, operations, and risk appetite. Key steps to consider include:
- Conducting an in-depth analysis of the current paper instrument management and screening process
- Defining the future process, including target architecture and requirements for each improvement area
- Choosing a qualified vendor through the RFP or vendor selection process and conducting proofs-of-concept
- Implementing and integrating automation tools based on defined requirements
- Conducting tuning and monitoring solution performance over time
How PwC Can Help
Our Financial Crimes Unit brings together the full breadth of PwC’s technology, regulatory, and investigative experience with the work of over 2,000 global financial crimes professionals. We can help you find a path forward where all else are hindered by obstacles.
Learn more about how we can assist you in implementing sanctions screening tools and technologies in Ghana.