PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
Maximizing your BSA/AML
application implementation
O
nce you select your vendor, you
start a relationship that becomes
one of the most important parts of
your Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance
program. Aside from the policies and procedures set forth in your BSA/anti-money
laundering (AML) manual, your vendor
relationship becomes the most essential
part of carrying out some, if not all, of your
policies and procedures.
Open lines of communication:
Critical to success
Communication is the key to unlocking the most out of this relationship. It
is important that there is information
sharing on both sides. Upon signing the
contract with your AML vendor, a project manager from the vendor should be
assigned to your institution. This person
acts as the main point of contact. All communication should be reported to this
individual to ensure that all information
is captured throughout the project from
the vendor’s point of view. This includes
not only all communication, but also any
issues throughout the life of the project. A
project plan must be defined to implement
the functionality needed. This project plan
serves as a road map for the tasks needing
completion to get your system up and running. While there will always be certain
things that may impede your progress on
the plan, try and stick to the tasks and
dates listed by your vendor.
First steps: Thorough information mapping
The first task that usually requires
completion is identifying the information
that needs to travel into your BSA/AML
application. At this point, you may need
to engage your Information Technology
staff in assisting you with identifying the
fields that are needed to get the most out of
your application. Information that is not
mapped leads to missed functionality. It is
important that you have all the information
available in your BSA/AML application so
that you can get all the functionality available from your vendor.
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The core = indispensable data =
cru