Independent Banker - September 2023 - 61

Compliance
Full screen ahead for community banks
The Modern Way to Stay on Top of Sanctions Compliance
As a community bank,
you face rapidly mounting
pressure to comply with
regulatory sanctions
screening requirements.
But with technology also
advancing quickly, FIS
WatchList Reporter can give
you all the tools you need
to streamline the matching
process, improve its accuracy
and make faster, more
confident decisions.
Stan Dillon
VP / Business Executive,
FIS | Fraud, Risk and Compliance
Is your sanctions program
up to speed?
From a regulatory perspective,
the base requirements for
sanction monitoring programs
have not changed. For both
compliance and Know Your
Customer due diligence, there's the fundamental need to check
every payment, transaction and prospective new customer against a
watchlist of sanctioned individuals, entities and places.
However, as we've learned from our community bank clients, wider
developments are driving the need for modernized sanctions filtering
tools and services:
Watchlists are growing faster
In today's precarious geopolitical environment, the U.S. Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and equivalent bodies around the
world are constantly updating their lists of sanctioned people and
organizations, at an ever-increasing speed.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, for example, the U.S. financial
intelligence unit FinCEN has been especially focused on adding
more individuals and entities to the OFAC List. In addition, identifying
politically exposed persons (PEPs) has become even more important.
The more lists change and sanction or watchlist scope broadens, the
more frequently banks must rescan their customers.
Legacy tech has fallen behind
In the wake of 9/11, filtering tools emerged to automate sanctions
programs and satisfy regulators. But more than two decades later,
these aging systems tend to generate high levels of " false positives "
and make extra work for banks, as they're forced to adjudicate the
same results over and over again.
Disparate systems produce mixed results
Many community banks now outsource several of their processes,
from core banking and payments to internet banking, typically to
multiple providers. That can mean screening different channels with
different tools, each using their own matching algorithms - and often
producing inconsistent results.
Regulatory scrutiny is increasing
When multiple screening tools are in use within one institution,
regulators may ask the bank to rescan a channel with another tool to
address any inconsistencies and make sure sanctions programs are
sound.
To pre-empt these checks, some banks have started routinely
scanning channels twice with different solutions, which considerably
increases their overhead and workloads.
FIS WatchList Reporter has all the answers
WatchList Reporter gives community banks a single, powerful system
for sanctions compliance that they can use to screen all their channels
in real time or batches.
With advanced filtering methodologies and an intuitive interface, the
solution uses a " smart scan " feature to enhance the quality of alerts to
potential breaches and prevent duplications. So, it can more easily cut
through the noise to reduce false positives and identify the items that
require attention.
Futureproofed global compliance
No matter how quickly watchlists or filing requirements evolve, FIS
always keeps WatchList Reporter up to date with the latest changes, for
compliance with not only the OFAC list but also sanctions lists globally.
Plus, we partner with Dow Jones to provide cost-effective access to
market-leading global data for matching.
Centralized alerts and match transparency
WatchList Reporter's real-time service can be integrated with your
workflow for customer onboarding, payment processing and all your
other banking channels to provide a centralized alerts queue.
For every channel you're monitoring, it's easy to adapt match rules
to each activity. With high-volume low-value payments, for example,
tighter matching criteria will help you reduce time-wasting false
positives.
And whatever your strategy, the solution clearly shows you, regulators
and auditors why and how matches were made, complete with
evidence to support sanctions-related decisions.
Flexible deployment options
FIS can host, maintain and run WatchList Reporter for you in a secure
cloud environment, while keeping you ahead of regulatory changes
and evolving sanctions lists.
The solution is also available as licensed software that you can run
yourself on-premise. Both options include subscription access to Dow
Jones data.
Find out more about WatchList Reporter
WatchList Reporter is a proven compliance solution that will help you
make sound analytical sanctions decisions faster and with greater
confidence. Request more details or a demo by emailing getinfo@
fisglobal.com
Stan Dillon
getinfo@fisglobal.com
Independent Banker - September 2023

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