At an Anti-Financial Crime conference held in Mumbai, India, the discussion was going on around the challenges faced by financial institutions in complying with the AML/CFT laws and regulations.
One lady participant from the Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions space raised a question: why is no one talking about us? Though we are small in size, the law applies to us equally. Our compliance is the same; maybe because of limited resources, we face more challenges in keeping up with regulatory requirements.
The lady was right. On the way back home, the founder of RapidAML, Mr. KK Gupta, had a thought rolling back to his mind:
KK Gupta
Founder, RapidAML
How can we solve the challenges faced by these Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), which are subject to mandatory AML compliance?
AML, as we all know, is not merely restricted to financial institutions. With the exploitation of non-financial businesses and professions by financial criminals to route illicit money, some vulnerable non-financial sectors are also required to develop and implement robust AML programs.
Here began
the exercise
Mr. Gupta gathered his expert team to brainstorm the AML compliance issues a DNFBP may have. In this course, he invited AML professionals and experts who work closely with the DNFBP segment to complement his and his team’s knowledge and experience around tech and financial crime compliance.
The team was rapidly set to tap the space, focusing on using the right software to address the AML compliance concerns of the DNFBP category. As the team discussed, everyone was of the view that most of the challenges faced by DNFBPs are due to the manual processes which are prone to errors and duplication of work. The apt solution for these challenges would be to automate them and make life easy for the compliance officers.
Deep Pai
Chief Technology Officer
DNFBPs need easy-to-use software with an intuitive UI/UX and built-in workflow and task management functionality to navigate the complex AML/CFT compliance challenges.
The next step was to identify the gap between what the DNFBPs need to manage their AML activities and what the then-existing solutions offer to DNFBPs.
With this, all the human experts and experienced brains came together to ponder over the issue, leading to uncovering the AML compliance concerns DNFBP faces, which the widely available tools are unable to tackle. The key compliance hurdles noted by this “RapidAML Committee” are:
Lack of integrated solution to handle DNFBP’s customer onboarding and compliance journey. Solutions available in the market just have a screening window to offer to DNFBPs - what about KYC and customer risk assessment, and where do the customer documents be stored, leading to halfway automation? Oops, not even half.
Most of the tools are developed considering financial institutions, automating core business processes and compliance, and, thus, DNFBPs do not find them user-friendly.
If, by chance, any solution exists that offers an integrated solution—starting from KYC to document management—such solutions are not budget-friendly for small businesses and professions.
While mandatory reporting by the DNFBPs with Financial Intelligence Unit is the point which is generally sidelined.
Tracking the timelines and trigger events warranting profile review of the existing and ongoing customers of such DNFBPs has always been a worrisome task.
The solutions available lack in terms of various features like workflow and internal task management which is a must for small entities as one single person handles multiple tasks and in that process, compliance becomes the last priority.
With jotted pain points in front of experts, a
determined motion came:
“Let’s build a dedicated and comprehensive AML compliance solution for DNFBPs”.
A solution that addresses the AML compliance challenges of a DNFBP – be it small in size or a multiple entity with various branches across the globe.
The incubation of RapidAML began, focusing on the resolution of DNFBP’s challenges and bringing relief around:
An end-to-end software, which is designed and developed keeping DNFBP’s operations in mind (easy-to-use and easy-on-pocket).
Enabling DNFBP to manage the entire customer onboarding lifecycle smoothly and automatically—everything on one platform—screening, KYC, risk assessment, and, yes, the complete documentation of a customer is available in one place.
Default DNFBP deployments around KYC and customer risk assessment that are easy to customise, giving a flavour of the business risk and local laws.
Empowering the DNFBPs to decide on the methodology for managing compliance—centralised for all branches or decentralised with a management view.
With automated tech-enabled notification, freeing DNFBPs from the hassle of tracking the CDD review dates for ongoing business relationships.
Leveraging the tech to prepare mandatory FIU reports with accurate and complete data.
Once the expected features were identified, the team learnt that Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs)—an emerging player in the AML compliance regime—are also facing similar concerns.
And, without a second thought, the “RapidAML Committee” circulated and affirmed the idea of extending the offerings to this growing and evolving virtual asset ecosystem.
This is how the journey of a RapidAML gets the green flag!
Get, Set, Go!
