Sep 10, 2021
NAB spruiks digital IDs to counter crims
- Reading on The Australian Financial Review
On September 10th, NAB revealed digital IDS helps to counter crimes in its money-laundering program to cover the compliance requirement from the regulator, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). In the past three years, NAB has been working through a remediation program with AUSTRAC to ensure fully compliant, and there is another year to go. This program is to focus the risk control in anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorism-financing. For example, in AML and the know-your-customer process, NAB has employed 1200 people and invested $800 million. One problem they are solving is to ensure up-to-date customer details, and the records of 9 million customers were being double-checked. The challenge they face is the tight labour market for digital and data jobs, as there is high demand across the country.
Westpac also invested a lot in financial crime, compliance and risk management. They employed 2000 people and spent $100M in security. They said the bank supported more oversight as the less regulation in the intermediary sectors such as real estate, the higher the risk.
Recently, AUSTRAC has settled with the two biggest banks for $2 billion for compliance breaches. Its role is to be reviewed by the Senate Committee as the reporting entities in its transaction monitoring regime increases from 15,000 to 100,000, and its capacity is being questioned.
