Practical Fraud Prevention

Part V. AML and Compliance Analytics

The chapters in this part of the book focus on money laundering and anti–money laundering (AML) efforts. AML and fraud prevention are closely related in some important ways; notably, they often face the same criminals or criminals who are part of the same wider crooked organization. It was important to us to reflect these two similar problems in the book.

The chapters largely refer to banks in their examples, because banks are required to make robust investments in AML and compliance, and these operations are relatively similar among all banks. Most relevant regulations also reflect, in one way or another, the assumption that the main players in this field are banks and other financial institutions. However, it is increasingly true that other, newer players on the scene, such as those in the fields of cryptocurrency, electronic wallets, and other alternative payment methods, must also grapple with AML and compliance responsibilities. The chapters that follow are as relevant for these companies as they are for banks, though their internal organizational structure may be different from those we habitually refer to as being common to banks.

With regard to ecommerce, compliance is also an important factor, but it’s relatively more manageable because many of the relevant actions, restrictions, and so forth are built into the payment services used by ecommerce companies. So, compliance is something to check out when choosing payment services ...