Ebury reduces false positive rates by 60% through bespoke transaction monitoring rule sets

Specializing in international cash management solutions, financial services company Ebury partnered with ComplyAdvantage to build a fit-for-purpose transaction monitoring (TM) rule set that could keep pace with the company’s rapid growth. Ebury is fully regulated in 21 countries and offers over 150 currencies to a diverse range of clients, from small-to-medium size businesses to large corporates. 

Ebury’s previous TM setup had become outdated, resulting in a large backlog of alerts and operational inefficiencies. As a result, Ebury’s compliance team sought a new long-term partnership for transaction monitoring to enable the company to scale while managing its financial crime risks.

A personalized approach

Ebury’s objectives for the partnership centered around creating a non-generic TM rule library configured to mitigate the specific money laundering and terrorist financing threats the business faces. Ebury’s ambition was to reduce the monthly false positive alerts it received to free up operational resources, delivering a laser focus on genuine threats. 

“We wanted a vendor that would give us the possibility of customizing our rules in line with our segmentation and provide us with the necessary information to understand the effectiveness and the efficiency of the platform. That’s something ComplyAdvantage allows us to do.”

Miriam Crespillo, Global Head of Sanctions and Transaction Monitoring, Ebury

ComplyAdvantage helped Ebury achieve its strategic objectives by implementing a TM rule library aligned with industry risk typologies that reflect Ebury’s different customer base. ComplyAdvantage ensured that each customer type was accounted for in its rule set throughout the scoping and build period. 

To support Ebury in its ambitions, ComplyAdvantage took a deep dive into what rules were currently working well for Ebury and which were no longer fit for purpose based on the company’s growth. 

Proactive collaboration

Particular attention was given to understanding Ebury’s risk-based approach to ensure the new TM rule set satisfied their needs and aligned with its risk appetite. Ebury collaborated with ComplyAdvantage implementation consultants to define their data model and scope out the bespoke rules they wanted to build. ComplyAdvantage’s solution engineers built these rules in a secure QA environment for Ebury to test, change, and refine. 

“The collaboration between ComplyAdvantage and Ebury during the testing and implementation of the new transaction monitoring framework has been key to ensuring its successful release in a timely manner, which has resulted in a clear increase of effectiveness and efficiency.”

Miriam Crespillo, Global Head of Sanctions and Transaction Monitoring, Ebury

Bespoke TM rule sets

Deploying ComplyAdvantage’s TM solution has allowed Ebury to build rules and configure thresholds tuned to its risk assessment. This means its analysts can focus on the alerts that matter and identify real risks. By adopting a risk-based approach and tailoring the rule set to its customers, Ebury worked with the implementation team at ComplyAdvantage to configure appropriate rules, mitigate risk, and reduce false positive rates by 60 percent.  

One such rule was built when new sanctions were being imposed on Russia at an unprecedented rate from February 2022. According to Ebury’s Screening and Transaction Monitoring Manager Ignaat van der Meulen, “Every transaction sent to Russia had to be reviewed in real-time. ComplyAdvantage helped us quickly implement a custom rule that stopped anything going to Russia in real-time.”  

Another bespoke rule set involved splitting the annual estimation rule to allow Ebury to track new, higher-risk customers. In splitting the rule, ComplyAdvantage also implemented different thresholds for new and existing clients in light of Ebury’s risk appetite. This change enhanced Ebury’s risk-based approach by allowing their compliance teams to prioritize and monitor the activity of new customers with the highest risk levels.  

ComplyAdvantage’s TM solution has allowed Ebury to uncover new insights into customer activity, enabling the financial services company to detect new or emerging typologies and build rules to mitigate them.

A longstanding partnership

Going forward, Ebury is working with its dedicated customer success manager who understands the compliance team’s objectives and plans to drive success. 

“Our customer success manager plays a key role. They are very easy to approach and act as a filter between the vendor’s technical teams and us when we want to tweak something from an operational perspective.”

Ignaat van der Meulen, Screening and Transaction Monitoring Manager, Ebury

Through a collaborative success plan, clearly defined goals, quarterly business reviews (QBRs), and continuous dialogue, Ebury and ComplyAdvantage have a partnership to track and measure successful business outcomes.