FAC provides governments with the knowledge to uncover and seize the financial assets of illegal groups, while enabling banks and brokerages to comply with EU and international money laundering regulations, including the 1999 United International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism.

By in-depth analysis of information within files and databases and correlation with International lists of suspect individuals and organisations such as the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) lists, FAC uncovers suspicious personal details and account activity. These accounts, containing either complete or partial information matches, can then be monitored, reported to the authorities, the transfer of funds tracked, and if necessary, the account frozen and assets seized.

HAL's Asset Control has three major components:

• Data Analysis and Monitoring: Extracts data on the structure, content and meaning of each field in any database to catalogue and categorise personal and account details against published or private suspect lists.
• Suspect Database: Utilises "Soundex" algorithms (international standard search technique) and "Phonetic Pattern Matching" to identify connected aliases and generate a "watch list" of potentially suspicious individuals
• Quick Search: Creates a fully searchable online directory that enables real time monitoring. FAC also responds to "live enquiries" from banking desks to analyse personal details and money distribution requests against the internal "watch list" and external government and agency sources

Governments are increasingly focusing their efforts on seizing the assets of terrorist groups across the globe, and along with specific Financial Security Committees, have accelerated the development of preventive measures. Money laundering regulation and legislation has also established precise obligations for banks and other financial brokers involving the reporting and freezing of suspicious accounts and operations.

"These measures are putting increasing pressure on financial organisations to play a central role in the fight against terrorism and organised crime," says Mark Kusionowicz, VP Marketing at HAL. "However, the complexity of international financial organisations and the increasing sophistication of today's illegal money launderers requires a different approach to the problem.

"Foreign Asset Control works by integrating with existing company data and processes, to identify suspicious data by directly analysing file content. By investigating "beyond the numbers", and correlating seemingly unconnected account information, suspicious data now has nowhere to hide. HAL's solution is a necessarily high-tech answer to an increasingly sophisticated challenge," Kusionowicz concludes.