Norkom's solutions will be implemented in OTP Bank's four banking operations in a first phase deployment, enhancing its defenses against financial crime and ensuring effective compliance with national and international regulations, including the 3rd EU Money Laundering Directive. This particular directive requires financial institutions to implement a risk-based approach to the management of their AML compliance operations, matching the degree of risk presented by each customer with an appropriate and variable level of monitoring activity, investigation and prioritization.

The implementation of Norkom's AML and WLM solutions represents a major upgrade of the bank's incumbent anti-money laundering technologies, replacing the system that was developed internally and which has been in operation for the past few years.

According to Gabor Kanyo, Head of the Compliance Operations Department with OTP Bank, "Norkom was an easy and logical choice for us due to its vast experience in implementing best-of-breed financial crime and compliance solutions for some of the largest financial institutions in the world, a reputation that is supported by a highly referenceable client base and a dominant position in Central and Eastern Europe".

According to Filip Verbeke, Sales Manager for Central and Eastern Europe and Germanics, "OTP Bank is wholly committed to achieving full compliance with the 3rd EU Money Laundering Directive. With Norkom's risk-based approach to financial compliance, OTP Bank will be able to target investigative resources where it delivers greatest value and reduce the incidence of time-costly false positives, enhancing the effectiveness of its financial crime management and protecting it from the financial and reputational risks associated with money laundering and criminal activities".

With Norkom's AML solution, OTP Bank will be able to monitor and analyze every transaction and customer interaction across its customer base for suspicious and potentially criminal activity. When unusual activity is identified, prioritized alerts will be automatically issued to a team of investigators to begin a comprehensive, step-by-step investigation process to uncover potential criminal behavior. Using advanced matching techniques, Norkom's WLM solution will alert OTP Bank if any entity attempt to transact with it is listed on any of the industry's numerous and diverse watch lists, protecting the bank from inadvertently conducting business with known or suspected criminals and terrorists.