Shinhan introduces data-driven anti-money laundering system

A promotional image for Shinhan Bank's anti-money laundering monitoring system. Courtesy of Shinhan Bank

By Lee Min-hyung

Shinhan Bank has introduced a big data-powered anti-money laundering system, in a preemptive move to detect any signs of unusual transactions, the lender said, Thursday.

The Shinhan-Trade Based Money Laundering (S-TBML) allows the bank automatically to monitor any signs of money laundering or suspicious transactions.

The system is operated by the lender's big data in trade and foreign exchange, which is used to prevent any risks on such illicit transaction acts in advance, according to the lender.

Shinhan Bank started developing the system in 2018, by teaming up with Shinhan DS, the financial IT subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group. In September of last year, the lender also succeeded in making the system more sophisticated, with artificial intelligence (AI) and optical character recognition (OCR).

The AI and big data have in recent years been the talk of the town in the financial industry here, with more banks and financial firms introducing the technologies with a longer-term view to cutting manpower costs and increasing work efficiency in a more accurate manner. OCR is also a key technology used to transform printed texts or documents into digital images. It has significantly improved Shinhan's work processes, especially when the lender monitors trade-related documents, it said.

The lender also underscored that the system would help reduce unnecessary labor or equipment costs, while at the same time, enhancing the quality and speed of the monitoring process.

“Monitoring complex global foreign exchange transactions with digital technology is one of the most crucial tasks that any banks should handle,” an official from the bank said. “We are going to keep hedging global risks by further developing the system for more accurate monitoring of acts of trading and possible money laundering.”