EMEIA Financial Crime Data Survey

Reliable and accurate data is central to a successful anti-financial crime program. Financial services firms today face many challenges.

Good data is fundamental to a successful anti-financial crime program. The key challenge is managing the quality of ever-increasing data volumes, which is exacerbated by legacy architecture constraints, poor data governance controls and lack of leadership buy-in.

The delays in tackling these data challenges are an impediment to the effectiveness of financial crime controls, which rely heavily on data being available and of high quality. Data issues and poor architectural design limit a financial institution’s ability to detect suspicious activity, rendering detection and decisioning ineffective and making thorough investigation challenging.

While significant quantitative analysis has been produced covering the use of data in many financial services contexts and domains, there is limited analysis covering data within an EMEIA financial crime context. In response, EY teams conducted an EMEIA-wide Financial Crime Data Survey of financial institutions. The survey focused on the impact of data on systems and processes, data strategy and data investment within a financial crime context.

The survey ran during Q1 2021, and interviews were conducted directly with the participants, capturing comments and discussion topics.

Scope

• The Financial Crime Data Survey provides a view of current and future EMEIA data-related solutions.
• The survey covers financial crime data management topics such as systems, investments and strategy.
• The survey brings together insights from compliance, technology, data and analytics professionals across EMEIA financial institutions.

This paper focuses on four key themes that emerged from the data and provides insights on the way forward for financial services organizations.