Financial crime compliance solutions ensure that local banks can fight AML/CFT threats in real-time and better support economic growth

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN / SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 7 July 2020 -Accuity, the leading provider of financial crime screening, payment services, and counterparty know-your-customer (KYC) solutions, today announced how leading banks across Pakistan, including HabibMetro Bank, Sindh Bank Limited, and Askari Bank Limited, are using Accuity solutions to meet ever increasing regulatory requirements. Having supported more than 40% of Pakistan's banking and financial services institutions over the past decade, Accuity continues to work closely to enhance the sector's ability to meet their local and international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) obligations.

Pakistan has been making progress in meeting the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 27-point compliance requirements. By meeting this global standard, Pakistan aims to strengthen its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing and at the same time boost its economy by positioning itself as a regional financial and exports hub.

"Accuity has helped contribute to the efforts of the Pakistan government and State Bank of Pakistan to establish a strong system to combat money laundering and terrorist financing," said Bharath Vellore, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Accuity. "With our best-in-class financial crime screening and compliance solutions, our customers in Pakistan across banking, microfinance and insurance are confidently offering financial products and services to meet the levels of compliance required by global, regional and local regulators  They are now in a better position to accelerate cross-border trade volumes, enable remittances from its large diaspora, drive financial inclusion, and provide small and medium enterprise credit."

Establishing Global Banking Relationships to Serve the World's Seventh Largest Diaspora

HabibMetro Bank is a subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich (HBZ) -- a Swiss multinational bank with operations in nine countries. Due to its international presence and multiple correspondent banking relations, HabibMetro must perform due diligence on its correspondent banks in a timely manner, as per the guidelines from FATF and the Wolfsberg Group.

To do so, HabibMetro uses the Bankers Almanac solution from Accuity, including the Due Diligence module, to conduct KYC due diligence checks when increasing its correspondent banking footprint in other geographies. Bankers Almanac provides a single and consistent source of truth for information on over 21,500 banks, providing supporting documentation for due diligence checks, and allowing the Bank to more effectively manage its financial counterparty KYC and mitigate any associated risks.

"Bankers Almanac helps HabibMetro to comprehensively manage our periodic financial counterparty reviews and onboard new financial counterparties more efficiently, with the click of a button," said Farooq Ahsanuddin, Head of Financial Institutions & Remittances at Habib Metropolitan Bank. "These capabilities allow us to increase the productivity of our financial services team and streamline our banking operations, while delivering unparalleled service to our customers worldwide."

Real Time Screening Capabilities to Meet Compliance Mandates and Drive Financial Inclusion

Sindh Bank Limited is a government-owned Pakistani scheduled bank with 330 branches in 169 cities nationwide. To effectively manage its AML and CFT compliance checks, identify politically exposed persons (PEP), and deter proscribed persons from engaging in illicit financial activities, the bank adopted Firco Compliance Link and Firco Global WatchList^® solutions to demonstrate enhanced screening capabilities and processes to local regulators. It is also using Bankers Almanac to provide supporting documentation for due diligence checks.

"The bank's ability to have a consolidated view of all accounts and transactions activities, conduct on-going and automated screening, coupled with comprehensive audit trails to the regulators, is fundamental in ensuring that our branch network both meets compliance mandates and promotes economic development," said Mr. Imran Samad, President and CEO of Sindh Bank Limited. "We have chosen to partner with Accuity for its sophisticated, intelligent and automated approach, speeding up operations and improving our services to our valued customers. This in turn gives us more capacity to innovate and help drive financial inclusion."

Setting Strong Controls on Exports with an Advanced Trade Compliance Solution

Askari Bank Limited is a commercial and retail bank in Pakistan that implemented Firco Compliance Link in 2018 to manage risks related to trade-based money laundering and terrorist financing. This solution brings together proprietary data, on-ground intelligence, and regulatory compliance expertise that allows the bank to centralize its screening processes against trade transactions involving sanctioned individuals, entities, vessels, ports, and dual-use and controlled goods (DUG).

"By offering an enterprise-wide, single screening solution, Accuity is covering seven different applications of the bank that are mostly integrated for the purpose of performing real-time screening for accounts, payments and trade transactions. Accuity is able to meet all our compliance and business requirements, thereby safeguarding the bank from any regulatory or reputational risks," said Mr. Ali Raza Zaidi, Chief Compliance Officer, Askari Bank Limited. "This allows Askari Bank Limited to maintain our position as the local standard bearer in proactively meeting the highest trade compliance requirements, while ensuring innovation."

More information on the Accuity portfolio of financial crime screening and payment services solutions can be found here: https://accuity.com/what-we-do/overview