With Coronavirus forcing home working and ‘social distancing’, there has never been a better time to automate your AML checks

With the Government now advising us to work from home where possible and minimise the amount of time we spend around other people to reduce the impact of coronavirus, there’s never been a better time for regulated businesses to switch to an automated AML platform.

Businesses in the property, legal and financial services sectors that are required to run identification and verification checks on customers before conducting any business, and still use physical documents to do so, are really going to struggle.

If people are unable to come in with their documents for checking, it won’t matter if the rest of their business can be done remotely – because nothing can happen until those initial checks have been completed. And that is why it has never been a better time to switch to electronic verification.

Unlike manual checks, electronic systems offer a consistent approach, reliable outcomes and convenience. Not only will switching allow ‘business as usual’ as checks can be done remotely it will also save your business a small fortune, as all you need to do is enter an individual’s details into the system and the platform will complete a full AML check in less than two seconds.

Not only that, but the system performs Sanction, PEP, SIP and RCA screening on every check, triggering Enhanced Due Diligence automatically for any clients that matched, while daily monitoring ensures you are alerted if any of your clients’’ status changes.

In January, the 5th money laundering directive came into force, and it states that customer due diligence measures should identify the customer electronically wherever possible.

And it is possible that in a post-Brexit world, the FCA - or whatever agency takes over the control of our money laundering regulations – will take this even further and insist that electronic checks become mandatory.

We don’t know whether electronic AML checks will become compulsory or not, and we don’t know how long coronavirus will continue to impact our lives, but what we do know is that using an electronic AML platform is the most reliable, secure and efficient way of conducting identification checks, enhanced due diligence and ongoing monitoring.

Given the huge benefits of using an automated system, any businesses subject to AML processes that are still using documents should try the electronic alternative.

Not only are manual checks open to errors, but in the current climate, they will soon become impossible to conduct, so there has never been a better time to make the switch.

We can set your business up within 24 hours, so what are you waiting for?