First National Bank (FNB) of Lebanon has migrated to the FICO® TONBELLER® Siron® Anti Financial Crimes Suite to take a more holistic, integrated approach to compliance with AML/CTF (anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing), KYC (know your customer) and tax regulations.
FNB will use the FICO solution to detect money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes, and report suspected cases to the country's financial intelligence unit, the Lebanese Special Investigation Commission. FNB will also use the Siron Tax Compliance Reporting module to meet the reporting standards for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the US and the global Common Reporting Standard (CRS), CRS, developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"Even in the compliance area, our customers' satisfaction is paramount," said Elias Baz, general manager of FNB. "When we decided to change compliance solutions to improve efficiency and customer service, we talked to both local and global providers. The FICO solution was the most flexible, powerful and customizable platform on the market. No other provider offered us a platform with this breadth and depth of functionality: from customer risk classification and transaction screening to tax reporting, including risk and compliance cockpits for governance."
"FNB is among the banks recognizing that there are big gains to be made from using one system for compliance, rather than a patchwork of products," said Torsten Mayer, vice president for compliance solutions at FICO. "Some providers even offer different systems for FATCA and CRS compliance — this is the wrong approach. By centralizing compliance with one system, FNB can enhance detecting criminal activity, serving customers and reporting to multiple agencies."