November 30, 2005 - Les Echos

The Baloise group is automating its fight against financial crime. The software of Norkom will make it possible to supervise the customers, new and existing, of the assurance group by examining lists of surveillance established by the authorities of regulation to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.

While controlling each transaction of the insurance company, they will immediately identify the transactions likely to imply private individuals, organizations or countries considered "high-risk". The 3rd directive EU 2005, as well as the instructions published by the GAFI (Financial Action Group), oblige the companies assurances to reinforce their defenses against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Accordingly, the companies must have (and show they have) adequate policies, procedures and internal audits in order to detect and prevent money laundering.  Although until now, the regulators concentrated on the banking houses, it is clear that the regulation will be applied in a more rigorous way in the insurance industry.

"These lawful requests, in conjunction with a very strong ambition to protect our activities and our customers, gave us necessary to invest in this technology," declares Peter Kalberer, responsible for the group in charge of protection against money laundering with Baloise.

"With more than two million police forces and of transactions per week, we knew that automatisation was the only practical solution able to give us the certainty which each customer and each police force make l¿objet d¿un routine inspection by checking them in the lists of our industry and by deferring us to all the suspect incidents announced by the regulator".

Operational since June to the head office of Baloise, in Basle in Switzerland, this technology will be put in subsidiary companies of the company in Belgium, in Luxembourg, in Germany and Austria, in order to supervise each police force of Baloise.

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