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Transforming Regulatory Operations & Strengthening Compliance

Transforming Regulatory Operations & Strengthening Compliance

A national financial institution providing banking-as-a-service solutions faced mounting regulatory scrutiny over its anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance program. Following the discovery of missing transaction data and a backlog of unworked alerts, the client was required to conduct large-scale lookbacks and remediation. We quickly mobilized a team of experts to resolve tens of thousands of alerts, enhance processes and deliver sustainable compliance improvements.

Challenge

Our client, a financial institution, experienced escalating regulatory pressure tied to its prepaid and fintech partnerships. Missing transaction feeds resulted in unworked alerts from prior years, and regulators required a comprehensive lookback. At the same time, a growing backlog of “business-as-usual” transaction monitoring and sanctions alerts placed the bank at risk of falling further behind, including exposure to potential Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) violations. 

The client needed a trusted partner to rapidly clear tens of thousands of alerts, remediate compliance gaps and strengthen operational controls—all while under heightened scrutiny from their regulators. 

Solution

Within two weeks, we assembled and deployed a flexible team of nearly 80 experienced financial crimes investigators, technologists and compliance professionals to quickly attack the problems and prevent further aging. Together with the client, we: 

  • Executed large-scale lookbacks, clearing over 45,000 historical alerts and 30,000 backlogged BAU alerts. 
  • Reduced sanctions alerts from more than 11,000 aged alerts to volumes within SLAs, bringing the program current and eliminating the risk of OFAC breaches. 
  • Streamlined processes with custom workflow tools designed, developed and deployed within the client’s monitoring system. These solutions automated alert narratives, standardized the presentation of transactions, and expanded documentation into regulator-ready analysis. 
  • Reduced regulatory burden and provided evidence and analysis that enabled the bank to justify closing tens of thousands of low value alerts, saving significant time and cost. 
  • Established a centralized project management office (PMO) for compliance to oversee 20-plus regulatory initiatives and ensure program consistency. 

Outcome

The client made measurable progress across multiple remediation areas and restored credibility with regulators. Key outcomes included: 

  • Timely clearance of tens of thousands of alerts, with escalated cases reviewed for SAR filings. 
  • Significant reduction of sanctions backlog, with new alerts now closed within 1–2 days. 
  • Enhanced CDD/EDD and transaction monitoring practices embedded into ongoing operations. 
  • Sustainable improvements adopted by the client as business-as-usual processes, leaving them with stronger governance, scalable operations and a proactive approach to financial crime compliance. 

 

As a result of our work, the bank emerged with stronger governance, scalable compliance operations and a sustainable approach to managing financial crime risk. 

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