How to Use Live AVM Monitoring to Efficiently Screen High-Risk Customers
Background
A financial institution was looking to enhance its adverse media (AVM) monitoring by screening high-risk clients more proactively. Their aim was to identify potential reputational risks and early warning signs that weren’t detectable through structured AVM (verified and categorised findings from databases) alone. Here’s how they implemented the KYC360 Live AVM Module, achieving robust compliance without overwhelming operational resources.
1. Initial Setup
The institution began by configuring the Live AVM Module to target their top 10% high-risk clients. They set precise search parameters, including specific keywords, country focus, and a 30-day look-back period, ensuring only the most relevant results would surface. This configuration helped minimise unnecessary alerts, allowing the compliance team to focus on critical findings.
2. Screening for Real-Time Results
With the Live AVM Module, the institution could now access a continuous feed of unstructured media sources, like Google and Bing. They received up to five relevant results per client, ranked in order of relevance. This capped approach kept the operational workload manageable while ensuring key information surfaced without requiring an exhaustive manual review. The institution had full control of these parameters and could change them based on any changes to organisational risk appetite.
3. Reviewing and Investigating Findings
For each match, the compliance team was able to conduct a deeper investigation by following links directly from the potential matches dashboard. This investigation process was aided by the module’s ability to securely store all findings in a single, auditable report, allowing for comprehensive documentation of decisions and outcomes.
4. Ongoing Monitoring and Adjustments
As part of their continuous monitoring process, the institution set a monthly AVM rescreening frequency for their top-risk clients. Each screening focuses on new articles from the previous 30-day period, ensuring efficiency and minimising overlap. Additionally, the institution updated keywords and criteria in line with evolving financial crime trends, adapting to the latest regulations and organisational risk appetite.
Results
The KYC360 Live AVM Module enables the institution to proactively detect potential risks without overwhelming resources. By managing the search criteria and frequency of AVM searches they minimised the number of irrelevant results. The comprehensive reporting tools provided an accessible record of all findings and adjustments, streamlining regulatory compliance and internal audits.
Our Customer Lifecycle Management SaaS Platform takes care of all aspects, from creating the right first impression with rapid risk-based onboarding, through to award winning screening and KYC refresh that enable your business to:
- Realise massive operational efficiencies
- Achieve rapid ROI through the speedy deployment of our no code solutions
- Master complexity with solutions that evolve as regulations change
All at the same time as delivering even higher levels of compliance assurance.
