May.10, 2010, 13:07:47 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland and Labrador - (Business Wire) Verafin, Inc., a leading provider of compliance, anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud detection software, today announced that United American Bank has become its 500th client across North America. Verafin’s second-generation solution will help United American Bank detect suspicious activity and mitigate financial crime, while ensuring compliance with industry regulations, such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

“With the growing complexity of money laundering schemes and an increased focus from government regulators, financial institutions need a better way to monitor fraudulent customer activity and meet compliance standards,” said Jamie King, CEO, Verafin. “Even in a challenging economic climate, financial institutions like United American Bank continue to choose Verafin, illustrating the solution’s value in improving efficiency and reducing fraud losses. We achieved record revenues in 2009—doubling that of 2008—and are continuing on a strong growth trajectory. Marking our 500th client is only the beginning.”

United American Bank, with $430 million in assets, is a full-service commercial bank headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. Verafin will enable the bank to combine its AML and fraud detection efforts, which helps simplify BSA processes and reduce duplication investigations and false positive alerts, resulting in better outcomes with less cost.

“As we continue to grow, we need a comprehensive system to detect potential incidents of fraud and money laundering,” said Joe Simoni, vice president, BSA officer, United American Bank. “We had been looking at automated systems since 2006 but couldn’t find the right fit. Verafin piqued our interest when we learned that it had been endorsed by the California Bankers Association. Its unique technology, as well as outstanding service and support sealed the deal.”

Unlike traditional rules-based systems, Verafin uses a behavior-based approach that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to search out unusual behaviors. This approach analyzes transactions and looks for patterns of behavior that are unusual for the customer or are indicative of money laundering. This analysis creates a risk score for each customer and when the risk exceeds a certain level, an alert is generated. The system provides all the relevant transactions for the customer as well as the specific pieces of evidence that lead to the alert.

Verafin not only helps institutions catch more suspicious activity, it changes the way compliance officers think about their daily processes. Now, just one person is needed to oversee alerts and determine if they should be handled by the compliance officer or a fraud investigator.

“Verafin’s second-generation solution is clearly a cut above the offerings from other automated software companies,” continued Simoni. “It’s like having another person working with you. Verafin will free up time for me to concentrate on other tasks and take on more projects that I didn’t have time for before.”