BY PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
The UK’s FCA is using machine learning to get faster at identifying and taking down scams, one of its top staffers has revealed.
Andrea Bowe, Director at the Financial Conduct Authority’s Specialist Directorate, said the new approach has led to the takedown of hundreds of suspicious websites.
“We’re using machine learning to find and remove scans more quickly,” she told the International Anti-Financial Crime summit in London.
During a keynote speech at the event, she revealed: “We are scanning approximately 100,000 websites created every day to identify those that appear to be scams, with hundreds of websites taken down as a result.
“Just last year, we issued 2,286 warnings, which was a 21% increase from the previous year.”
Bowe also referenced how the FCA is using new screening tools to combat sanctions evasion.
“Our sanctions screening tool tests how effective firms are at identifying sanctioned individuals and entities using test data,” she told the conference.
“This has enabled us to carry out a substantial amount of work accessing the systems and controls related to sanction compliance for firms across a wide range of sectors so we can ensure they are robust.”
However, Bowe added that new technologies are “key” parts of combatting financial crime, they are not “silver bullets”.
“Firms need to make sure they have the right processes in place, regulators need to work together to ensure that they have consistent approaches,” she said.
“Wider partners, like tech companies, need to work together to stop criminals exploiting the system.”
Speaking more generally, Bowe said that greater international cooperation is needed to stop cross-border financial crime.
She said while countries have made progress in this area, a “global concerted effort” is needed to ensure that positive steps translate into “greater use” and more effective anti-financial crime policies.
Referencing how the world’s health officials cooperated to fight Covid, Bowe said the AFC global community needs to do the same.
“By embracing innovation and technology, we can seek to stay ahead of the criminals and prevent the virus of financial crime,” she said.
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