Connecting the Dots to Tackle Financial Crime and Fraud

With digitalisation and automation, fraud and financial crime have evolved into faceless and elaborate industries. It impacts not just the vulnerable, but also the sophisticated, across all sectors of society. Difficult to quantify, it has become a necessary evil and sometimes seen as a cost of doing business in industry. With a lack of data, it remains a problem that is difficult to tackle.

PayAlly believes that the solution rests with all the key players, including governments, central banks, regulators, industry bodies, firms and customers alike, working collaboratively. “Each party needs to play its part in working together, cohesively and cross-border to stamp out the vain of this hidden crime,” says Shahid Rahman, PayAlly’s Chief Compliance Officer & MLRO.

He adds, “When data collection, reporting and sharing become consistent, and fraud reporting agencies can reciprocate relevant data, then firms can arm themselves with the ammunition to tackle the stealth of online fraud and financial crime. New tools are being developed by dynamic and innovative RegTech players in the market. Such solutions can become effective if we all help each other by playing our part in connecting the data we already have and targeting the bad guys to, slowly but surely, drive them out of the sector by playing a clever and intelligent game of cat and mouse.”

Shahid Rahman (left) & Senior Financial Infrastructure Development Manager Ignats Tusevs recently attended what has become the unmissable financial crime event of the year for the payment services industry. It was organised by The Payments Association and was held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on Tuesday 22^nd November 2022. The conference was very well attended by experts across the industry, from various parts of the world.