Preventing financial crime

Financial institutions have detailed preventing financial crime requirements on customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, reporting suspicions of money laundering, preventing bribery and corruption, managing fraud risks and preventing market misconduct.

Legislators and policy makers globally have responded to successive market failures and the sophistication of organised crime by increasing the number and complexity of offences and regulations that apply to financial crime in its widest sense.

The challenge for all financial institutions is how to move beyond using their internal controls to 'tick the box' to a position where the controls help them manage their financial risks actively.

How can we help you with financial crime compliance?

Bovill Newgate has experience across all areas of financial crime compliance.  We support our clients by:

• Assessing financial crime risk across your firm - we work with financial institutions to advise on and develop comprehensive financial crime risk assessments (enterprise wide risk assessments as they’re known in Singapore or institutional risk assessment in Hong Kong). These can assess customer risk, country risk, product risk,  organisational risk and other risks.  Risk assessments help financial institutions to demonstrate that they understand and actively manage their financial crime risks.

• Conducting a financial crime health check - Bovill Newgate can review your current systems and controls against regulatory requirements, perform a gap analysis and recommend a plan of action.  We conduct interviews, process walkthroughs, and file reviews to check whether you are fully compliant.

• Ensuring your governance is fit for purpose - we review the reporting lines and flow of information across your organisation to ensure clear communication between the individual responsible for money laundering prevention and the Board, and an integrated approach to financial crime between responsible departments. For fund managers, this will also incorporate your fund administrator.

• Getting your policies right - Bovill Newgate can assess your policies and procedures and, if necessary, work with you to develop your documentation based on current practice, in line with regulatory expectation, and tailored to your business.

• Training your people to understand risks - we can work with you to design a comprehensive training and assessment programme, training individuals and specialist teams to ensure a thorough understanding of the financial crime risks and controls within your financial institution.

• Preparing for regulatory visits - we believe preparation for supervisory visits should be tailored and proportionate.  Bovill Newgate can walk you through the whole process, ensuring you are fully prepared.

Whether you need help with a specific area or ongoing support with financial-crime compliance, Bovill Newgate can help.