Created to future proof organizations and reduce operational costs, the new Actimize solution was designed to ensure rapid deployment to allow institutions to get ahead of the upcoming 2013 July compliance deadlines. In developing the new offering, NICE Actimize solicited feedback from its existing client base to understand their needs with respect to this pending legislation.

The solution is designed to help firms establish a structured FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) compliance program that includes simplification of investigation tasks to potentially reduce operational spend and a sophisticated network analytics capability that understands complex ownership structures. NICE Actimize's proven analytical models remove the guesswork from the process of beneficial ownership identification, among many benefits.

Additional features include time to completion dashboards that simplify operational management, customer data capture, screening of pre-existing and new individual and entity accounts, document management and IRS reporting. FATCA goes into effect in January 2013.

Recognizing the synergies between FATCA and Anti-Money Laundering/Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements, NICE Actimize developed the FATCA solution with two deployment options: either as a standalone solution or integrated with the Actimize Anti-Money Laundering solution suite, thereby maximizing the re-use of technology resources and helping to reduce operational costs.

Explains Julie Conroy McNelley, Research Director, Aite Group, "FATCA places an onerous compliance obligation on Foreign Financial Institutions, who need to be looking for proven solutions that can help them handle this new customer screening requirement. Solutions need to have the ability to efficiently screen customer data, identify complex data relationships, and facilitate reporting to the IRS, without placing undue burden on compliance staff."

"Given the strong regulatory and industry focus on FATCA, as well as the deep and broad changes to processes and systems that may be required to comply with FATCA in order to meet the extensive data gathering, account classification, owner identification, management and retention requirements, there must be a strong alignment between compliance, technology, legal and operations to ensure minimal impact andmaximal efficiencies of existing systems," said Amir Orad, President and CEO NICE Actimize.

"Leveraging NICE Actimize solutions and expertise, financial institutions around the world can prepare for FATCA quickly and efficiently, without disrupting day-to-day business operations, overburdening compliance departments, or impacting client experience," Orad explained.

Despite the fact that it is U.S. legislation, FATCA has global implications for all financial institutions. US financial institutions, acting as withholding agents, need to be compliant by January 2013, while financial institutions operating outside of the U.S. - termed Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) - should be compliant by July 2013. Institutions need to adopt procedures, processes, and systems necessary for U.S. account and U.S. owner identification.