Committed to supporting local financial institutions, particularly rural banks, MDI Novare has kicked off a series of webinars to that aim to educate on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism fighting activities as part of the government’s efforts to establish a clean financial sector.

MDI Novare’s webinar series hopes to enhance rural banks’ technical and technological know-how to implement robust systems to fight financial crimes by equipping institutions with the needed skills on how to report on suspected money laundering activities and how to combat them.

The first webinar in the series titled “A-L, An Introduction to Anti-Money Laundering Systems in the Philippines” was given by Atty. Rainier Dela Fuente, an accredited AML trainer and consultant, and a former financial investigator at the Anti-Money Laundering Council, where he eventually became part of the Council’s Office of the Executive Director.

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MDI Novare introduces new solution to help rural banks vs money laundering

Legal framework

The Philippines has been adopting and implementing legal measures to counter money laundering and terrorism financing, the most notable of which is the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) of 2001, as amended.

The AMLA aims to protect the integrity of bank accounts by ensuring that only accounts originating from legal sources are maintained and those linked to criminal activities are removed from the banking system. The AMLA also aims to prevent the country from being tagged as a money laundering destination. The law also bolsters its international commitment to prevent financial crimes by fulfilling its obligation through information exchanges with other countries and agencies.

From the traditional definition of money laundering, the AMLA expands the scope of transactions subject to strict scrutiny. These include transacting, converting, transferring, posing, moving, concealing, or disguising transactions associated with money laundering. It further expanded to preparatory acts such as attempting or conspiring to commit money laundering; abetting, assisting, or counseling how to launder funds; facilitation by allowing criminals to use a financial institution or a business establishment; and intentional or deliberate failure to submit reports to the AMLC.

SIEVE AML Transaction Monitoring System

Under current laws, the owner of a sole proprietorship, partners, and the board of directors or trustees of a corporation are liable because they have the ultimate responsibility of complying with the AMLA and implementing its rules and regulations.

Rural banks and other financial institutions can avoid penalties and punishments by submitting timely reports required by the AMLC. Enabling rural banks to achieve this task, MDI Novare has introduced SIEVE AML Transaction Monitoring System. A comprehensive anti-money laundering solution, SIEVE AML system leverages data integration, analytics, alert/case management, and AMLC regulatory reporting. 

The new solution is built on a sophisticated, high-performance platform that supports the end-to-end process of combating financial crime and working with large volumes of data while automating the tasks as much as possible. The key features of SIEVE AML system include automated transaction monitoring, intelligent network analysis, 360-degree understanding of customers and their transactions, and a simple, highly configurable business user/investigator-centric interface.

SIEVE AML Transaction Monitoring System is built by MDI Novare. With more than 30 years of experience and expertise in the information technology industry, the company is a leading digital transformation enabler for telecommunication companies, financial institutions, manufacturing and BPO firms, and government agencies through next-generation technologies, automation processes, and other end-to-end solutions.