KBC Bank leads the way in AML and the fight against financial crime

In 2002 KBC Bank was among the first of Europe’s financial institutions to adopt new technology to automate its anti-money laundering (AML) activities, fired by a renewed determination to route out money laundering and potential terrorist financing.

Having achieved significantly improved detection rates, while reducing its investigative costs and streamlining , it is now extending its use of that technology to its fight against fraud.

In doing so, KBC is signalling a new trend that is fast gaining ground in the financial services industry, as companies recognise the economic synergies to be gained by combining their compliance management and financial crime prevention activities.

In 2002 KBC Bank, like most of its competitors, was using Excel spreadsheets and rudimentary manual systems to manage its compliance operations. As Bruno Van den Meerschaut, KBC’s Head of Anti-Money Laundering, explains, the situation was far from satisfactory...