Compliance systems

While remittances may pose higher risks than services like bill pay, they are absolutely necessary in an age of unprecedented migration. It's high time state and federal regulators update the rules to help inspire banks to re-risk.

The president-elect's policies on taxes, offshoring, surveillance and other issues will affect bank technology officers and their vendors in a variety of ways. The positives may slightly outweigh the negatives.

An ACL client with hundreds of U.S. employees recently began requiring its workforce to use Uber for all business travel-related cab rides, after ACL revealed how Uber’s geolocation data could be correlated with the details of employees’ expense reports.

Disintermediation is so five years ago, according to Cross River Bank in New Jersey. It just raised $28 million from Silicon Valley. Now, it wants to enhance its compliance system so it can partner with "riskier" fintech startups and, effectively, enable the industry's so-called disruptors.

Fintech circles are abuzz about the possibilities for streamlining compliance work following IBM's deal to buy Promontory. Artificial intelligence software could help separate false positives from true violations, for example, or read and parse through lengthy regulations.

Banks are expected to spend more on technology in the coming year, with the cash earmarked for things like upgrading mobile apps and adding self-service tech in branches.

Artificial intelligence like IBM's Watson may not make bank compliance officers obsolete, but it could mean far fewer of them will be needed in the future, focused on higher-level tasks.

The sheer amount of data created in recent years has exploded, leaving banks with a tremendous amount of data sets to mine through. Community banks need to utilize analytics to stay competitive with their big-bank peers.

Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, Calif., has hired Laura Izurieta as its chief risk officer. She will lead the company's risk management, corporate compliance and regulatory relations functions and serve on the executive management team.

Banks need more specific guidance that clarifies requirements around vendor contracts, risk assessments, data management and other issues.

The private equity firm GTCR is interested in fintech companies looking to disrupt the status quo, so long as they have proved themselves and are paired with managers who have a long track record of success.

Directors and senior executives have a duty to inculcate risk culture into banks so that everyone works as a team to contain cyber and other risks, including the human vulnerabilities within.

As banks pull out of developing countries, we must seek a healthier balance between preventing money laundering and maintaining banking systems of entire regions.

Using methods akin to fighting external hacking can also address risks of employees committing legal or ethical lapses.

For the first time, the Fed this year is requiring banks subject to stress tests to show how they would cope with the possibility of rates dipping into negative territory. Analysts say they will be keeping close watch on custody banks, asset-sensitive regionals and banks with little overseas exposure.

Comments by JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon have added fuel to the long-discussed idea of a national database that would make it easier for banks to vet customers for anti-money-laundering and other risks.

Hypur, a startup seeking to help banks serve businesses deemed high compliance risks (e.g. marijuana), has recruited a former Department of Justice lawyer to help build credibility. Its signature product: a payments platform to replace cash transactions.

Blockchain technology could power the digital identity of the future, with banks serving as designated authenticators on behalf of their customers.

Bankers are increasingly turning to their compliance teams to gain insights about customers for business purposes. Compliance officers, meanwhile, are turning to technology to fulfill their heightened roles.

Technology at many banks has been assembled haphazardly over years. That makes for complex systems with lots of connections. Those points are prime targets for cybercriminals to find a way in.