Detecting Financial Crime

Helping analysts track down criminal money

“I work for our Detecting Financial Crime department within the Academy, and I am a People Development Consultant. It sounds wonderfully abstract, but in essence it's simple: I develop and implement workshops for Know Your Client and Client Due Diligence, or KYC/CDD. These learning solutions are designed for analysts who perform client due diligence or transaction analysis to counter money laundering and terrorist financing. The workshops I develop always concern topics related to the analysts' field of work, such as redeemable funds, trade-based money laundering and financial statements in a KYC perspective.”

Switching to ABN AMRO

“During my first year at ABN AMRO, I was an analyst. Before that, I worked as a Retail Consultant at another bank. It was there that I was introduced to KYC/CDD, and I thought: this is interesting. 'Financial and economic crime always involve victims. That's something people often don't think about. Terrorism, human trafficking, animal trafficking: money laundering is blood money. The more we combat it, the more victims we can prevent. I want to make sure that the financial system does not contribute to that.”

“From that other bank, I switched to ABN AMRO. The professional field has developed a lot faster here, and there has been a lot of focus on innovation. Moreover, ABN AMRO was the only bank recruiting for a new department of its own. That appealed to me.”

Workshops in the workplace

“The KYC/CDD professional field requires analysts to be constantly up to date and keep up with the latest developments. My team helps with that. I focus on workshops that support the analysts in applying our client acceptance policy and work instructions in their daily work activities. For example: if a client makes a lot of cash deposits or withdrawals, how do you include that in your risk analysis? I am in constant contact with colleagues in the respective teams, and together, we set the topics and learning objectives. Ideally, we want to set up a new workshop within about six weeks. Each workshop is given by someone from the workplace who knows how the analysts work. That way, they can get to work quickly afterwards.”

Lots of responsibility and trust

“The changes within Detecting Financial Crime are happening thick and fast. In order to ensure that the training material for the analysts is good and up to date, I have to keep track of a lot of things, such as processes, work instructions, legislation and regulations. It's a huge responsibility. At the same time, I notice that the bank relies on employees' skills. It feels good, because nobody is on your case. That's also the great thing about this department: whether you are conducting client surveys or managing a team, you know you're part of the huge battle against financial and economic crime. That sense of community is strong.“

Successes galore

“Based on a loose newspaper headline, outsiders sometimes think that banks hardly do anything to combat money laundering. I think it's important that people know how much hard work is going into it. We are doing so many things well already. We are developing algorithms in order to remove crime from transactions. We are building models to help us check that clients aren't misusing surcharges. It's a shame that I'm not allowed to go into the details – otherwise I could give lots more great examples!”

Complete focus on personal growth

“To be honest, I didn't think I would still be working here three years on. I came for the challenge and I ended up staying because of the focus on personal development. ABN AMRO's fringe benefits are excellent. There is a huge focus on the person behind the employee, including things like sports, vitality and sustainable employability. We even have a special department within Detecting Financial Crime for employee engagement. There's a lot on offer, but you have to seize opportunities yourself. The same applies to opportunities for advancement. I'm definitely not done here yet!”