The total projected cost of financial crime compliance across all financial firms in the Philippines rose by 44 percent last year, data from the LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud Study showed.
This translated to P35 billion or $690 million.
The cost of fraud across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region last year rose to 3.51 and 3.87 times the amount of actual lost transaction values due to the rise of fraudulent transactions, a significant increase from 2019’s regional average of 3.40.
Bharath Vellore, LexisNexis Risk Solutions managing director for APAC, the trend prompted industries such as insurance, banking, and financial technology (fintech) to upgrade financial crime compliance technology.
The Philippines is among the only three Southeast Asian nations, along with Cambodia and Myanmar, out of 22 countries assessed by this international watchdog in 2021 as deficient in combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.
Jonathan Rogerson, LexisNexis Risk Solutions senior director for APAC, further emphasized that industry players must be more vigilant of criminals who are always looking to move one step ahead.
“While effectiveness, efficiency and explainability are all key pillars of financial crime compliance, priority for these vary depending on the stage or maturity of your business,” Rogerson said.
“There has to be a balance to understand and detect risks through a combination of people, processes and technology.”
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Philippines country manager Vishal Taneja encouraged dialogue on regtech within the insurance industry, pointing out that “for businesses to raise the bar in financial crime compliance, the 3 E’s (effectiveness, efficiency and explainability) of the Money Laundering and the Terrorism Financing Prevention Program should be considered.”
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a global leader in combining advanced analytics and global identity intelligence technology with innovative financial crime technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotic process automation (RPA). These solutions enable precise risk perspective during the customer lifecycle, allowing customers to make timely and correct decisions and address financial crime risk.
Discussions on how technology can protect the finance industry from cybercriminals, money launderers, and terrorism financiers were the highlight of the launch of the three-part Risky Business Luncheon series.
This series’ pilot event, which zeroed in on the insurance industry, was attended by the country’s top insurance companies’ chief executive officers and chief compliance officers, together with the officers of the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) and Philippine Life Insurance Association, Inc. (PLIA)).
It was hosted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions in partnership with the FinTech Philippines Association (FPH), and GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications Inc., the convenor of Digital Pilipinas and World Fintech Festival-Philippines 2021.
The first Risky Business Luncheon, themed “Teching Up Insurance,” aims to promote regulatory compliance, collaboration, and an environment of innovation, using cutting-edge regulatory technology (regtech).
