Accuity, a provider of payment routing data, anti-money laundering (AML) screening software and services, today announced significant enhancements to its anti-money laundering and compliance offering – enhancements that have been developed in the light of the escalating situation in Libya.
As the unrest in Libya continues to develop, Accuity has continued to enrich the OFAC SDN list in order to ensure that current economic and financial sanctions are stringently enforced. Accuity will be announcing updates and enhancements to the OFAC SDN list on a live, immediate basis – a timeline that is important as the crisis continues to escalate. Accuity’s data ensures that all possible officials, aliases, business entities and organisations which may be subject to sanctions are included, providing the vital data necessary to support a rigorous AML compliance program offering extra protection and reduced reputational risk.
Since the beginning of the crisis, Accuity has added a total of 206 enhancement records to its Global WatchList that are related to OFAC’s Libyan sanctions program. Specific enhancements include additional Libyan government officials and their aliases; Libyan government agencies and banks owned or controlled by the Libyan Government that meet OFAC’s sanctions requirements; and 123 BIC codes that are not on the current OFAC SDN list. Additionally, Accuity’s synonym table now includes over 110 spelling variations of the name “Qadhafi”/“Gaddafi” to ensure proper matching in a transaction or account record.
These continual enhancements are part of Accuity’s Enhanced Sanctions Data, one element of the company’s unique set of compliance tools specifically designed to address rapidly changing political environments. This comprehensive approach involves global sanctioned entity data that is further enhanced with thousands of unique identifiers for added protection against sanctioned entities, including bank subsidiary addresses and BIC codes for sanctioned banks, up-to-date vessel information, comprehensive payment routing data, extended profiles on family members and known associates. Last month Accuity launched its Middle East Screening Solution, a tool that allows users to respond quickly and effectively to changing levels of risk associated with political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa. The volatile situation in the region led Accuity to create a system of country-specific enhancements, enriching OFAC’s SDN list to reflect the changing state of affairs in Libya and Egypt ensuring that current sanctions are correctly and stringently enforced. As political situations in different geographic regions change, this solution enables Accuity to provide its customers with the compliance tools necessary to address them.
Malcolm Taylor, Managing Director EMEA and APAC, Accuity, commented: “As the situation in Libya dramatically worsened and the international community was forced to put sanctions in place, Accuity sought to provide enriched, in-depth and timely information that would equip banks and businesses alike with the tools required to maintain a compliant and proactive approach to operating in a rapidly changing political environment. Accuity is committed to supporting our customers and the markets we serve as they look to minimise risk and keeping them updated on a systematic and up-to-the-moment basis”.
