Anti-Financial Crime

Your expert for questions

Lars-Heiko Kruse
Partner, Forensic Services, Anti-Financial Crime Leader at PwC Germany
Tel: +49 160 96941067
Email

How financial services companies can protect themselves against financial crime

Financial crime is a cause of growing concern among financial services companies, regardless of whether their operations are limited to Germany or are international in scope. There is a wide range of offenses that fall under the heading of financial crime. Serious criminal acts range from fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism through to corruption and market abuse as well as cybercrime and violations of national and international sanctions. The experts at PwC provide support to insurers, banks and other companies from the financial services sector in defending themselves against financial crime and responding rapidly to attacks. Financial services companies are obligated to ensure that corruption, money laundering and other such offenses are detected rapidly – and this task has been high on their agendas for quite some time.

Such offenses have far-reaching consequences that go far beyond the company's financial losses. The reputation of the company is also at stake, as are its business relationships with clients and partners as well as the level of motivation among its employees. Last but not least, there is the risk of findings being made by the competent supervisory authorities.

Overview of our services

Are you prepared against financial crime?

Only if your company is well prepared can you ensure compliance with the relevant requirements and determine where there are needs for optimisation.

• Have you checked whether you comply with all relevant regulations and guidelines?
• Do you regularly analyse and assess risks relating to your processes as well as your control mechanisms in relation to all aspects of financial crime?
• How effective are your screening and transaction monitoring tools? Do you mainly spend time here dealing with the processing of "false positives"?

• Do your processes and control mechanisms undergo regular improvement (e.g. in the area of money laundering prevention as well as compliance with financial sanctions and anti-corruption regulations) so that potential violations of requirements for combating financial crime are detected more effectively and efficiently?
• Do you systematically analyse your institution's internal data by using innovative new technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence and process automation) in a targeted manner as part of your prevention efforts?
• Have you had your strategies, guidelines and processes relating to financial crime prevention evaluated by an expert?

Our approach

Prepare

We develop a holistic strategy for your company to combat financial crime, e.g. in the area of money laundering and fraud prevention or compliance with financial sanctions. This includes the review and optimisation of governance systems, strategies, processes, procedures, controls and innovative technological solutions. Furthermore, we help you to analyse and assess your risks and controls in order to identify weaknesses and areas that are particularly vulnerable.

Respond

If a concrete suspicion arises – e.g. relating to market abuse, a violation of the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz – GwG), the financing of terrorism, non-adherence to sanction requirements or antitrust regulations – we investigate the facts. In the event of potential violations, we assist you in collecting and analysing the relevant data, in fulfilling the requirements of your stakeholders and the regulatory authorities as well as in ensuring that information is communicated in the appropriate manner.

Emerge stronger

We assist you in defining and implementing targeted measures for the further improvement of your compliance management system. This includes developing structures, processes and control mechanisms in order to protect your company from potential crimes as effectively as possible. To this end, we can draw on our many years of experience in developing and expanding holistic compliance organisations while also applying the market's most up-to-date best practices. By using our innovative technological solutions, we assist you in analysing and assessing your data. Therefore, we support you in using existing information in a targeted manner in order to prevent potential violations in the future or to identify them at an early stage.

Added value for you

Our global team supports you with in-depth knowledge of all aspects of anti-financial crime. Our offerings bring together a wide range of services so that we can provide you with a holistic and comprehensive assistance in dealing with your processes. We use proven, technology-based solutions in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness. These include, for example, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. The experience and trustworthiness that we have developed through our direct collaboration with regulatory authorities also contributes towards the success of our projects.