Financial institutions are facing numerous challenges as they attempt to meet the requirements of the anti-money laundering (AML) provisions of the Bank Secrecy and USA PATRIOT Acts. Compliance is dependent upon significant organizational support and adequate funding, often in an environment of limited resources and budgets. In addition, most institutions lack the necessary technology to identify and respond to AML risk, often relying on the time-consuming manual review of multiple reports from various systems, which leaves tremendous room for human error. In spite of these challenges, regulatory scrutiny by bank examiners continues to rise.

To help its clients overcome these challenges, Fidelity will refer financial institutions using its core processing applications to Banker's Toolbox, the provider of a complete end-to-end system for researching, analyzing, identifying, documenting and reporting suspicious customer transactions. Its BSA and Anti-Money Laundering Management (BAM) system is an industry-leading solution that aggregates and compiles data from Fidelity's core systems; analyzes and stores that data; identifies red flags; and automatically generates and files Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

"Compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws is becoming impossible without the right software," said Bob Kim, chief relationship officer. "We are committed to helping institutions reduce their risk exposure by providing efficiencies to the process of BSA compliance. The Banker's Toolbox approach is to accomplish this in a comprehensive yet transparent manner to help our customers meet a high level of regulatory scrutiny."

Banker's Toolbox's suite of products also includes WirePro, a solution that automates the processing of wires, performs OFAC checks, posts wires to the institution's host system and sends wire notifications to bank customers.

"We chose Banker's Toolbox as our preferred provider not only because their solution is best of breed, but also because it is cost effective," said Anthony Jabbour, executive vice president of products for Fidelity's Integrated Financial Solutions division. "Community and regional institutions have just as much at stake as the large national and international banks, but they need an affordable tool to achieve compliance. Part of our responsibility as a core processing provider is to help our clients protect themselves from all kinds of risk, so we feel it's important to be in a position of recommending the BAM and WirePro solutions as a prevention against money laundering activities."