How to leverage

SWIFT ebook
September 2019 payment data
and analytics
to mitigate
compliance risk

5 key steps compliance

professionals need to take
to better harness payment
data for compliance risk and
achieve greater efficiencies
Knowing who is The international banking community is rallying
in the fight against money laundering, terrorist
financing and cyber fraud.
sending and receiving At the same time, payment data volumes are
money is vital in the increasing exponentially; these datasets lack
standardisation, are often spread across multiple

fight against financial IT systems and subsidiaries, and are delivered in

several formats.

crime Having access to accurate insights into payment

data remains a key compliance imperative to help
avoid financial loss and reputational damage.

1
Financial Institutions The Wolfsberg Group’s guidance on payments
message standards has been important in
the enhancement of international payment
are realigning policy, transparency.

data and systems However, the full adoption will require Financial
Institutions (FIs) to realign policy, data and

to support new systems to these new requirements and/or

foster the development of enhanced market
infrastructures. Legacy payments infrastructures
payments standards may limit the amount of information that can be
included in a payment due to the absence of
sufficient field space.

Full implementation of ISO 20022 standards

would support addressing these limitations.

2
Addressing these There are a myriad of challenging factors,
including systems complexity, legacy
infrastructure, the lack of standards, and the
requirements is no possibility of losing data throughout the payments
chain.
easy task The payments chain can span multiple
counterparties and branches across the globe,
which means that risk altogether is unclear.

The following steps can help you better address

these challenges and proactively seek new ways
to mitigate risk.

3
 Attaining a complete view of all message data for

1 payments and trade-related messages across

branches and correspondents is key to identifying
and quantifying global risk within your institution’s
transaction activities.

Get the big Overlaying data from your in-house network with
message data from the SWIFT network provides
picture on unique insights into payment flows without
compromising data privacy and security.

payment
activities

4
 FIs typically understand who they are receiving

2 payments from, but struggle to identify the other

banks that are sitting behind the transaction.

The ability to monitor payments traffic across your

network can mean that you can proactively spot
Monitor for potential pockets of risk and ensure that your
risk policies are being followed throughout the
unusual network.

behaviours These insights can be used for manual review as

part of ongoing AML/CFT Anti Money Laundering
operational processes.

5
 With the heightened regulatory focus on originator

3 and beneficiary information, payments data

quality needs to be constantly assessed.

This will help you identify problem areas and take

the right action where needed to ensure that your
Enhance payment payments meet relevant data quality standards.

data quality by Evidence from an independent source can enable

you to discuss the subject with counterparties,

identifying flaws when appropriate.

and blind spots

6
 Building a robust analytics programme from the

4 ground up to deliver the insights that you need

can be a costly and time consuming exercise.

Consider the return on investment of building

the tools and capabilities in-house versus the
Accelerate adoption of purpose-built analytics tools that you
can configure according to your risk appetite and
decision making reporting requirements.

with the latest

analytics

7
 Compliance teams are continuously challenged

5 by unexpected costs that impact departmental

efficiency. As the regulatory landscape evolves,
it is even more critical to leverage the right data
and technologies to make the best risk-based
decisions.
Take a community SWIFT is working hand-in-hand with the entire
approach to community to expand its analytics portfolio
to help you respond to these challenges. Our

addressing these solutions deliver extensive insights into payment

data quality and transaction flows across your
network, so that you can monitor and address
challenges financial crime risk with pinpoint precision.

Learn more by visiting our website

8
Further reading SWIFT Payment Data Quality
–– Video: Customer Testimonial
–– Helping you meet the payments transparency requirements
of correspondent banks
–– Features of Payment Data Quality

SWIFT Compliance Analytics

–– Video: Compliance Analytics from SWIFT
–– Alerting you to financial crime risks
–– The intelligence you need for financial crime compliance

SWIFT Correspondent Monitoring

–– Video: Can RegTech define a better path?
–– Strengthen your Correspondent Risk Management
–– Features of Correspondent Monitoring

9
 About SWIFT
SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the
world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging
services. We provide our community with a platform
for messaging and standards for communicating, and
we offer products and services to facilitate access
and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory
compliance.

Our messaging platform, products and services connect

more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations,
market infrastructures and corporate customers in more
than 200 countries and territories.

While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on

behalf of customers, we enable our global community of
users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised
financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting
global and local financial flows, as well as trade and
commerce all around the world.

As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue

operational excellence; we support our community in
addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways
to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational
inefficiencies.

Our products and services support our community’s

access and integration, business intelligence, reference
data and financial crime compliance needs.

SWIFT also brings the financial community together –

at global, regional and local levels – to shape market
practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual
interest or concern.

SWIFT’s strategic five year plan, SWIFT2020, challenges

SWIFT to continue investing in the security, reliability and
growth of its core messaging platform, while making
additional investments in existing services and delivering
new and innovative solutions.

Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT’s international

governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global
character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT’s global
office network ensures an active presence in all the major
financial centres

For more information about SWIFT,

visit www.swift.com.

© SWIFT
57440 - September 2019