Financial Crime and the Insurance Sector

Meet compliance challenges with Fortent’s effective, efficient and proven solutions.

With the insurance sector undergoing a sea change in regulation, companies face a host of challenges to meet the growing expectations of regulatory bodies, especially at the federal level. FinCEN, OFAC, and the US Treasury, bolstered by the sweeping requirements of Sections 314, 326, and 352 of the USA PATRIOT Act, are focusing their attention on the products and customers that carry the highest anti-money laundering risk for the industry. Also, as insurers expand beyond traditional products into areas tied to the financial markets, additional regulators such as the SEC and OCC come into play.

With the regulatory spotlight on cash-value insurance products and high-risk customers, insurers have been required to develop clear AML programs to combat these risks. The specific compliance challenges include:

• Comprehensive CIP: 'Knowing your customer' through a comprehensive Customer Identification Program (CIP) is the critical first step for insurers to detect money laundering.
• Integrated Transaction Monitoring: Collecting information and data from multiple sources, companies must monitor all covered products (term and whole life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, brokerage) and their subsequent transactions for suspicious activity. Transactions to be monitored include: payments, rollovers, loans, transfers, surrenders, partial withdrawals, and death claims.
• Regulatory-friendly Processes, including Reporting and Investigation: Regulators demand that companies provide justification for AML processes and alerts, requiring companies to test and audit their systems. In addition, companies require smooth, efficient reporting and investigation procedures to manage alerts and the examination process.

To help companies meet these requirements, Fortent has developed a comprehensive suite of solutions designed specifically to combat money laundering and ease the compliance burden.

Fortent solutions set the global standard in:

• Comprehensiveness: Complete systems that meet regulatory requirements
• Integration: An end-to-end workflow and case management platform
• Scalability: A solution that accommodates evolving compliance requirements

Fortent's Risk and Compliance Technology for Insurance

Fortent AML & Fortent KYC

To manage client risk, insurance companies are required to implement strict due diligence for all new and existing customers carrying products with cash or investment value, paying particular attention to OFAC and other watch lists. As insurers expand their offerings in wealth management and annuities, and move into new markets around the world, complicated 'Know Your Customer' challenges arise. These challenges are compounded by the complex distribution channels of insurance products – from Web sales to captive agents to independent brokers. Insurance companies must make sure that 'Know Your Customer' processes are followed regardless of where accounts are opened.

Comprehensive risk ranking and screening

Tackling information complexity is Fortent's strength. Providing an enterprise-wide solution to customer due diligence, Fortent's solution collects vast amounts of data and information input from multiple sources and aggregates them into a single, streamlined system. As the system evaluates customer information flowing in from both captive and independent agents around the world, as well as from Web and phone sales databases, our solution paints a complete picture of the real risk an entity poses to an organization. By measuring customer profiles against OFAC lists, third-party resources (such as the Internet), watch lists, and internal databases, Fortent establishes an exceptionally rigorous standard for CIP. In addition, Fortent's CIP solution is reinforced by powerful Customer Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence technology.

Cost-efficient transaction monitoring

Maintaining compliance with AML regulations means that insurance companies must monitor, on an enterprise level, all transactions involving covered products. With risks related to product and account activity, from unusual premium payments to suspicious policy changes, insurers have to take into account the wide variety of money laundering scenarios available to financial criminals. The challenge for organizations is not getting bogged down by too much irrelevant information, which can drive up costs of investigation and analysis and drain management resources and attention, and focus on the true threats posed to the firm.

Managing data overload

Fortent's monitoring technology has been developed over a decade of working with regulators and financial institutions to create 'best practice' processes. In capturing information from the institution's existing data silos and from all agents and brokers across all business lines, our system creates a single, smooth process. Fortent's technology minimizes 'false positives' and delivers maximum cost efficiency.

Pain-free reporting, investigation, and exams