Vasiliki Stergiou

Securities firms often overlook sanctions risk management. But in an evolving regulatory environment, leading institutions are ramping up their capabilities to enable more secure growth. When sitting firmly in the post-trade environment, it is not immediately clear why firms such as clearinghouses and custodians should be concerned with managing sanctions risk (see sidebar “What are sanctions?”). Surely that would be handled by banks, brokers, and other parties earlier in the trade life cycle.

Most financial institutions start their financial crime AI journey in either the know-your-customer (KYC) or transaction-monitoring space, reflecting the importance of those controls. One global bank was looking to reduce data processing and manual hours spent onboarding new customers, as well as move from periodic reviews to an event-driven digital customer due diligence process. It set up an agentic AI factory that encompassed an end-to-end KYC workflow—from initial KYC trigger to final memo.

Most financial institutions start their financial crime AI journey in either the know-your-customer (KYC) or transaction-monitoring space, reflecting the importance of those controls. One global bank was looking to reduce data processing and manual hours spent onboarding new customers, as well as move from periodic reviews to an event-driven digital customer due diligence process. It set up an agentic AI factory that encompassed an end-to-end KYC workflow—from initial KYC trigger to final memo.