COCC-STB Alliance to Deliver Anti-Money Laundering Solution for Community Banks and Credit Unions
August 20, 2004 — ?The combination of COCC?s next generation core technology with STB?s leading AML solution will raise the bar on compliance and regulatory automation in community banks and credit unions,? said Mark B. Shaw, COCC?s First Vice President for Customer Service. ?We are pleased to ally with a clear leader in AML automation.?
Worldwide money laundering activities are currently estimated to involve as much as $1.5 trillion dollars each year. With money center banks implementing sophisticated AML technologies, the illegal activity is striking more often at mid-sized financial institutions. ?Unfortunately, this creates new concerns and operational challenges for many community banks and credit unions just as the regulatory burden is draining their resources,? said Shaw.
COCC?s alliance with STB Systems will automate the complex tasks involved in complying with the latest AML regulations. The STB system builds a permanent compliance database from multiple transaction sources. When integrated with COCC?s open core system, the STB system will automatically display customer cash flow trends and patterns of exception activity, such as out-of-character transactions, to identify potential money-laundering suspects.
Mark Shaw explained that financial institutions depend on computer systems to track thousands of transactions, detect patterns of potentially illegal activities over periods of days or weeks, and issue cogent reports to the authorities. ?The COCC-STB solution does that extremely well,? he said.
Compliance officers at community banks and credit unions will be able to review reports of suspicious activity and other ?exceptions? every day. Online queries will enable the officer to review exceptions by a broad range of criteria. Ad-hoc queries and custom reporting capabilities will enable staff to complement current procedures and provide source data to Executive Management and the Board of Directors.
?The key to an effective AML policy is access to data and the ability to interpret it,? said Shaw. ?The COCC-STB solution automates this process and delivers it in a standardized view that helps enforce the risk based approach to AML activity. This is just what the regulators are looking for.?
Michael Thomas, CEO of STB Systems, explained that the company currently provides highly effective money laundering detection, compliance and regulatory solutions to 160 of the world’s largest leading financial institutions. ?We are very pleased to be part of COCC?s outstanding platform of next generation solutions to community bank compliance activities,? said Thomas. ?With all the new regulations hitting community banks and credit unions, it just makes sense for these institutions to ally with a service bureau to lessen the overall regulatory burden.?
The COCC-STB solution will join a suite of COCC security and compliance solutions to meet the increasing regulatory challenge. ?COCC currently offers the most comprehensive package of compliance solutions available in the industry,? said Shaw. ?Our alliance with STB brings another top quality solution to our offering.?
ABOUT COCC
Established in 1967, COCC is a mutually-owned outsourcing, integration and software development company that provides complete enterprise processing solutions for community banks and credit unions throughout the Northeastern United States. The company recently expanded its market territory from New England and New York State to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. COCC was recognized by Cornerstone Advisors in its Gonzobanker newsletter for migrating all of its clients from a mainframe, proprietary core system to an open, relational system built on an Oracle data base. COCC is the only data processor in the country to accomplish this feat. Major product areas include strategic and operational technology services, workflow analysis, growth tools, disaster recovery, and regulatory compliance. COCC offers a comprehensive suite of security and compliance solutions, including secure Internet access, encrypted email, and automated software patching. For more information, please contact Bob Bessel at 860.674.7214 or at bessel@cocc.com.
ABOUT STB SYSTEMS LIMITED
STB is one of the world’s leading vendors of automated compliance reporting solutions for the financial markets. Founded in 1984, STB is the market leader with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong & Singapore. STB’s solutions are designed to automate the presentation of critical controls that protect financial institutions, handling both internal & external reporting to satisfy relevant regulatory bodies and assist in compliance with anti money laundering procedures. The company is one of just five recognized by the Bank of England for electronic reporting and works closely with many other respected industry bodies.
For more information, please contact Lawrence Ostrow at 212.682.4930 or at www.stbsystems.com
