• Home
• /
• Tech
• /
• Business

Artificial intelligence a key component in fighting money laundering in region

Mozn's founder stresses the role of technology in fighting financial crime

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need to combat money laundering in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

As a result of this growing recognition, many governments in the Mena region have enacted new AML laws and regulations. These laws and regulations have increased the reporting requirements for financial institutions and other businesses, and they have created new enforcement mechanisms. Additionally, many governments in the region have established financial intelligence units (FIUs), which are responsible for collecting and analyzing financial information that may be related to money laundering.

Saudi Arabia’s Mozn, a market leader in enterprise artificial-intelligence technologies, last month announced a regional expansion that will take the company into the AI, finance and fintech markets of the UAE and the GCC.

Dr. Mohammed Alhussien, CEO & Founder, Mozn, spoke to Khaleej Times on the the anti-money laundering (AML) steps being taken in the region how the company is facilitating businesses on this front.

Excerpts from the interview:

How do you see the current AML measures being taken by governments in the region?

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures are an integral part of any financial system’s integrity and security.

Here are some of the specific measures we see strengthening any financial ecosystem when it comes to AML:

● The enactment and enforcement of comprehensive AML laws and regulations.

● Increasing cooperation between different markets and understanding the local and global standing when it comes to AML measures.

What is the impact of AI on AML compliance?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a significant game-changer in the field of AML compliance.

● Enhanced Transaction Monitoring: AI can analyse vast amounts of transactions in real-time, identifying patterns and flagging suspicious activity much more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. This enables financial institutions to detect potentially illicit activities promptly and respond appropriately.

● Reduced False Positives: Traditional AML systems are known for generating a high number of false positives, which are legitimate transactions mistakenly flagged as suspicious. This leads to a significant workload for compliance teams who must investigate these alerts. AI, through machine learning algorithms, can improve the accuracy of these systems, leading to fewer false positives and more efficient use of resources.

● Improved Risk Assessment: AI systems can use a wide array of data to create comprehensive risk profiles for customers. Machine learning algorithms can identify complex patterns and connections that might be missed by humans, leading to more accurate risk assessments.

● Adaptability: Financial crime tactics are constantly evolving. AI and machine learning systems can adapt to these changes more swiftly than rule-based systems. They can learn from new patterns of fraudulent behavior and continually improve their detection capabilities.

● Automation of Routine Tasks: AI can automate routine tasks, such as data collection and report generation, which were traditionally done manually. This allows compliance teams to focus on more complex and strategic aspects of AML compliance.

● Regulatory Technology (RegTech): This field involves the use of technology to solve regulatory and compliance challenges more effectively and efficiently. AI plays a key role in RegTech solutions, helping firms meet their regulatory obligations, including those related to AML.

How do you expect Mozn’s solutions to help in this regard?

Mozn’s FOCAL – the AI-powered risk and compliance platform - plays a significant role in the region’s fight against financial crime and is bolstering compliance across the sector. FOCAL AML screens and monitors customers and their transactions using advanced name-matching algorithms that are uniquely optimized for Arabic language and names and reconciles them against more than 1,300 automatically updated global and local sanctions and PEP lists to help satisfy AML and KYC/KYB requirements.

FOCAL Anti-fraud proactively identifies suspicious patterns and prevents criminals from successfully defrauding organisations and their clients by confirming the identity of payees automatically by checking data input against the destination account’s records.

FOCAL combines a wealth of datapoints to score risk (for both fraud and money laundering) that automates a custom next action based on the highly configurable rules and the organization’s own risk appetite. Clients using FOCAL by Mozn are making better informed strategic decisions, getting compliant fast and staying that way as well as increasing team efficiency and reducing investigation time by up to 95 per cent.