Financial Services – The Alacer Group

The Alacer Group successfully implements its end-to-end financial crime solution-Velocity, at the Atlantic Community Bankers Bank (ACBB)

Posted on January 31, 2022 - 6:22 pm by Reid Wegley

Alacer Velocity’s Suspicious Activity Monitoring, Customer Due Diligence & Customer Risk Rating, Cannabis Screening, Case Management, and Automated Reporting, modules now supply end-to-end coverage to secure ACBB and its 350+ associated banks against financial crime.

Pennsylvania, USA — (January 31st, 2022) – The Alacer Group, a technology-led business transformation organization offering specialized solutions to prevent financial crime has successfully implemented its all-inclusive Financial Crime Solutions Suite, Velocity, at Atlantic Community Bankers Bank (ACBB). The live Alacer-Velocity system now monitors all customer accounts and transactions of ACBB and its client banks.

Financial crime has become a growing worry in the United States over the last 30 years. To address this, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Bank Secrecy Act, and the Patriot Act impose legislation and policies in the United States to combat financial crime such as money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, corruption, and more. Financial institutions, particularly banks, are obligated to adopt AML procedures to comply with these rules and regulations. When businesses do not comply, they face loss due to financial fraud and attract heavy penalties and restrictions that could result in the revocation of charters. The Velocity- FinCrime Solutions Suite, with its Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence technology, not only safeguards the ACBB and its associated banks against financial crime but ensures that the banks continue to adhere to the highest compliance regulations imposed by FinCEN, BSA, and the Patriot Act.

Since the stakes were so high, the ACBB, underwent a rigorous selection process. The ACBB team evaluated several small and big names in the financial crime solutions industry and had a eureka moment with Velocity. Checking all their requirements, Alacer-Velocity, a 360o FinCrime Solutions Suite that employs Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence-led investigations, monitoring, and reporting for fast and efficient regulatory compliance, was the solution they had needed. The competition was not over yet, after beating the competition in the selection process, the Velocity team was challenged with an almost impossible deadline. In little to no time, the Velocity team had to inspect the bank’s current system, identify the gaps, clean and segregate their data and finally implement the solution throughout the ACBB. Astonishingly, not only was the Velocity team able to integrate the financial crime suite in time but they were able to do it under budget as well!

Using Alacer-Velocity FinCrime Solutions Suite, the ACBB is now effectively boosting its anti-financial crime operations. Since Velocity is powered by the latest Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies and offers multiple detection methods, it now assists the ACBB, and its 350+ associated banks achieve AML compliance while reducing risks and increasing efficiency. Thanks to the robust architecture of Velocity, along with its multiple detection methods, customized workflows, and advanced analytics, the solution now acts as a powerful shield between ACBB’s system and cybercriminals and a useful weapon to fight against financial crime.

The ACBB has employed various modules of Velocity, including,

Velocity TBMS (Transaction and Behaviour Monitoring system) that monitors all customer transactions.
Velocity KYCR (Know Your Customer and Risk) for monitoring all existing customers periodic reviews, existing and new customers risk rating, and onboarding new customers.
Velocity ICMR (Integrated Case Management and Reporting) supports ACBB by consolidating all alerts and case workflows in one location, supplying a way to quickly develop, investigate, evaluate, approve, and file automated SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) reports.
Velocity CSR (Cannabis Screening and Reporting) aids ACBB to decrease false positives by analyzing entities in CRB monitor lists against transaction and customer data.

About ACBB

Founded in 1983, Atlantic Community Bankers Bank (ACBB) delivers correspondent, payments, and lending services exclusively to financial institutions. As a trusted partner, the company aggregates, innovates, and integrates services with over 400 shareholder and client financial institutions. Their solutions drive efficiency, profitability, and relevance among businesses and consumers. ACBB was formed, owned, and is governed by community-focused financial institutions.

About Velocity
The Velocity Financial Crimes (FinCrime) Solution Suite (FSS) helps financial institutions comply with Fraud and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations with ease and simplicity. The solution uses multiple detection methods and an advanced analytics engine powered by Hybrid Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help institutions, large and small, achieve compliance while reducing risk. The Velocity Software Suite includes several data disambiguation tools, such as in-built Entity Resolution, designed to help financial institution get their data right. Core features of Velocity include real-time sanctions screening, fraud monitoring, customer due diligence and risk rating, AML transaction monitoring, cannabis screening, and centralized alert-case-SAR management with real-time dashboards, and automated regulatory reporting and analytics.

Alacer Group’s Velocity AML Suite Selected for Deployment in Prominent Bangladesh Banks

Posted on September 3, 2015 - 5:21 pm by Reid Wegley

SEATTLE, WA–Marketwired – The Alacer Group, dedicated to helping business leaders accelerate performance, quality, productivity and profitability, today announced that its Velocity AML Suite has been chosen by three prominent banks in Bangladesh to improve AML case workflow and security. After an extensive search process, Mercantile Bank Limited, Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) and Meghna Bank selected Alacer’s Velocity AML Suite to ensure robust KYC/CIP onboarding, sanctions screening, payments interdiction and transaction profiling, all key operational areas that support local and international anti-money laundering efforts. The banks selected the Velocity solution for its ability to be quickly deployed, its robust reporting features and for the delivery of consistent and full compliance with AML regulatory requirements.

All implementations are currently underway through Alacer’s local technology partner, DataSoft Bangladesh Limited.

About Velocity
Alacer’s Velocity AML Suite is a powerful and scalable set of system modules specifically designed for facilitating AML case workflow and reporting. Velocity combines smart case management, sanctions screening, transactions monitoring and KYC/CDD functionalities. Each component in the suite is scaled to meet local and global regulatory requirements accurately, consistently and predictably. Velocity offers seamless integration with core banking systems and can be used on its own to perform KYC/CDD, alerts reviews, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, real-time payments interdiction and periodic reviews. The system is purposefully designed to meet international regulatory compliance standards and its powerful reporting capabilities gives management insights on effectiveness, productivity and resource utilization.

About DataSoft Bangladesh Limited
DataSoft is a CMMi level 5 in progress, ISO 9001:2008 certified leading software product and services company in Bangladesh. Since 1998, DataSoft has established a successful track record of delivering innovative and cost-effective technical services to customers in the corporate and public sectors. Fortune 500 companies have selected DataSoft for mission critical public services, IT services such as e-Payment, Customs House Automation and Port IT operation (CTMS), automation of commercial banks, and the deployment of a SaaS model on a private cloud to more than 2200 microfinance banks. For more information, please visit the website at http://datasoft-bd.com/.

About The Alacer Group
Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, with offices in New York and Dallas, The Alacer Group is a business consulting firm focused on four practice areas: big data, technology, finance and healthcare. Offering expert consultants around the globe, Alacer works with companies to resolve their needs quickly and smartly, resulting in positive outcomes. Alacer’s experienced anti-money laundering specialists design, develop, and implement effective process and system solutions for financial institutions. We help clients strengthen AML and compliance controls while improving efficiency through the application of the right mix of people, process and technology. For more information, please visit the website at The Alacer Group or find us on LinkedIn.

4 process tactics banks should employ today — Medium

Posted on June 21, 2016 - 5:51 pm by Reid Wegley

Banks should embrace process improvements now in order to improve the bottom line and pave a smooth road to the future

As the financial industry continues to evolve in the face of rapid technology advances and ever-changing compliance regulations, banks today are faced with the challenge of constantly retooling internal processes or risk falling behind more enlightened competitors. Rather than fear the dynamics of change, however, banks should lean into it and embrace process improvements and reengineering as ways to improve the bottom line. By taking a deep look into your bank’s programs and processes, you’ll likely find several opportunities where simple process changes can improve efficiencies across the board.

In fact, here are four areas of focus where you can easily start the process:

1) Know your high-risk customers

One of the most frequently asked question by regulators is how many high-risk customers do you have? If you are not able to answer that question, it’s time to make improvements. . . Click here to read the rest of this story: 4 process tactics banks should employ today — Medium

Are you ready to Lean? — Medium

Posted on June 21, 2016 - 5:49 pm by Reid Wegley

Regardless of industry, today’s consumer-centric world requires organizations to challenge the status quo and move into a new way of looking at how to better deliver products and services

A business can only go so far in its race to bottom-line pricing; the key is to find differentiators that deliver increased customer value. There’s no better way to achieve this than through reengineering and optimizing your organization’s business practices.

Continuous process improvement, sometimes referred to as Lean Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma, offers an ongoing improvement program that can define how an organization embraces change. The principles of Lean were first applied to automotive manufacturing in the U.S., but refined by the Japanese after World War II. Toyota Motor Company recognized that workers had much more to offer than just muscle, and initially experimented with Quality Circles. Eventually, this was distilled into principles that improved process and quality control to increase productivity.

Today, continuous improvement principles are at the heart of organizations across the economic strata. In the financial services industry, we successfully introduced Kaizen principles. . . Click here to read the rest of this story: Are you ready to Lean? — Medium

Why Satoshi Nakamoto doesn’t matter — Medium

Posted on June 21, 2016 - 5:43 pm by Reid Wegley

All eyes should be on the emerging technology’s disruption of the banking technology instead of finding the Bitcoin founder

The financial industry is increasingly shadowed by the image of Satoshi Nakamoto; the supposedly reclusive Bitcoin digital currency inventor who has been publicly outed by the press on numerous occasions, only to find once the headlines have ceased that the person in question was not Satoshi Nakamoto. The latest Nakamoto? Australian Craig Wright claimed to be the Bitcoin founder last year, but his claims were largely rebuffed by the Bitcoin community and by the press. Now he is back and begging the world to believe he created Bitcoin, claiming he has ‘extraordinary proof’ to back up his claims.

I say, who cares? The founder of Bitcoin doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of the financial world. What really matters is Bitcoin’s disruption of a technology resistant financial industry, which is taking place on a scale that goes beyond just digital currency.

In fact, 60 Minutes ran a groundbreaking story about fintech’s disruption of the financial arena recently and it pointed out something key to the fintech debate — the banks, by and large, are not mapping to the trends and changes happening in just about every industry that are being caused, not by technology, but by banking customers’ adoption of technology into their everyday lives. One of the fintech startups featured in the story, Stripe, was founded by a couple of millennials from Ireland. Their view of the world is focused on the internet-driven society they were raised in, but is also surprisingly customer focused. . . Click here to read the rest of this story: Why Satoshi Nakamoto doesn’t matter — Medium

The blockchain train has left the station — Medium

Posted on June 21, 2016 - 5:17 pm by Reid Wegley

42 major banks have now tested five blockchain technologies

If 2015 was the year everyone was talking about blockchain, this will be the year that everyone builds on it. In the last few months since blockchain hit the cover of the Economist, there have been dozens of announcements trumpeting the benefits of blockchain systems, ranging from proprietary technology developed by Overstock.com and which it plans to use to issue public shares, to open-source technology developed by IBM on the Linux kernel to be freely shared between developers.

To say that the financial services industry is nervous as a result would be an understatement. For decades, banking transactions have been kept on private ledgers that only the institutions could control. Blockchain is changing that system and shaking up the status quo. . . To read the rest of this story, please click here: The blockchain train has left the station — Medium

Israel’s Addition to Financial Action Task Force Long Overdue – Medium

Posted on June 21, 2016 - 4:39 pm by Reid Wegley

Data proves some existing FATF member countries have much deeper AML issues than Israel

The worldwide Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering recently announced that Israel will join the organization as an observer starting in June 2016. Considering Israel’s tough stand on terrorists, adding it as an observer is a big step forward for the prestigious FATF, which sets global rules and standards for combating money laundering and terror financing. To date, only 34 countries make up its membership; countries that don’t meet FATF’s standards land on the task force’s blacklist.

In order for Israel to become a full member of FATF, it will have to pass comprehensive international inspection, showing that it has improved identification requirements at its financial institutions and expanded its AML regulations. The rewards for doing this work and joining the organization are that Israel will be able to participate in shaping global policy dealing with financial fraud and position itself as one of the leading countries in the worldwide fight against money laundering and terror financing.

Knowing the other 34 countries already accepted as full FATF members, I’m surprised it took this long to start the membership process for Israel. . . Click here to read the rest of this story on Medium.com.

High-Priced Bongs, and Other Ways Pot Businesses Handle Cash – American Baker’s BankThink

Posted on June 20, 2016 - 10:54 pm by Reid Wegley

The good, the bad and the ugly of the legal marijuana business

With medical marijuana now legal in 23 states and recreational marijuana legal in Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon, cannabis is a legitimate growth industry generating substantial income. In Colorado alone, the pot industry is expected to pour an estimated $120 million in tax revenue in the state’s coffers for 2015. Nationwide, medical and recreational marijuana as an industry is expected to net between $2 and $3 billion per year in revenue.

You might think banks would be lining up to do business with these cash-rich entrepreneurs, but nothing could be further from the truth. The banks, rightfully so, in my opinion, assume they are putting themselves at risk with the federal government by engaging in marijuana-based businesses, as marijuana is still considered an illegal substance on the federal level. And the reality is today’s banking industry is all about risk mitigation, especially when it comes to cash-based businesses and the potential for rampant money laundering.

Yet, as I stated above, this is a quickly growing and legitimate industry in the states where it is legal. In its infancy, however, marijuana entrepreneurs are facing a mountain of regulatory and financial issues. The biggest of these issues is the lack of access to banking services. Here are what I’d consider the good, the bad and the ugly stories related to legal marijuana banking and taxation.

To read the rest of this story at American Banker’s BankThink blog, please click here.

Originally published at www.americanbanker.com on February 29, 2016.

Pot is legal…but the income isn’t? – Medium

Posted on June 20, 2016 - 10:48 pm by Reid Wegley

Banking the proceeds remains a crap shoot for legal pot shops

Despite the fact that federal statutes make it illegal, a growing number of states (23 and the District of Columbia at last count) are approving some form of sale of marijuana to the public. These legitimate (by state) businesses have figured out how to securely grow, ship, receive and store their products, but banking the proceeds from these agribusinesses is still a crap shoot.

Banks inherently avoid risk due to the stiff penalties they face for money laundering, an activity largely associated with drugs, so any profits earned from the sale of marijuana are suspicious. As a result, nearly all of the nation’s banks refuse to even offer basic services to these businesses, their owners and employees. This has forced many marijuana-based organizations to move to all-cash transactions — spawning more opportunity for money laundering than if the transactions were handled by the financial services industry.

It’s such a murky area that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators proposed a bill that would legalize banking. . . Click here to read the rest of the story on Medium.com.

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