Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Ticking the box or more?


In the work we do with financial institutions we use concepts that are familiar to most you. The 3 lines of defense model, taking a risk based approach, defining a risk appetite and assessing an organization against this are a few key examples of these.
That’s an approach that goes well with our fellow AML/CFT practitioners and compliance officers in general. If we talk to the first line of defense though – whether it be sales staff, relationship managers, the trade finance department, tellers, payment processing staff or support staff – we often find some skepticism when we take this approach.
In the front line there are 2 things we notice. First there is a clear and explicit desire to know ‘what is allowed’. As a specialist or advisor we’re asked to give direction and guidance on client onboarding, filtering treshholds, documentation requirements and more. Understandable but what is needed is that the organization takes an approach in line with its own policies and guidelines. An advisor can share best practices but every organization is different.
Secondly we notice that the majority of staff still believes that compliance costs money and that the organization should do the minimal and not more. Even though most management and staff are aware that non-compliance is expensive there’s little desire to do more than just ‘tick the box’.

Just curious if this is something that others see as well, we welcome your thoughts and reactions.

Rolf

E:  Rolf@i-KYC.com
W: www.i-kyc.com

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