The more effective your financial institution is at identifying and mitigating financial crime risk, the stronger your institution’s reputation and customer base. Follow these guidelines for reducing your institution’s risk of financial crime.

Establish Corporate Culture

It’s important your financial institution establish and enforce appropriate corporate culture that includes actively reducing financial crime risks. For example, everyone must advocate reporting suspected fraud from internal and external sources as it occurs or is discovered. It’s especially important that senior management exhibit behavior based on integrity, ethics and transparency, as their actions are often more closely looked at and modeled by employees. Your culture must also include accountability standards for employees at all levels. In addition, senior managers need to take active roles in investigating potentially fraudulent activities. Your corporate culture should include zero tolerance for financial crimes.

Create Crime Prevention Protocols

Your financial institution should create its own framework and protocols for mitigating financial crime. It’s best you utilize past experiences and current risk assessments when developing your reporting methods and accountability standards. Ensure your protocols can quickly adjust to market developments and improve your risk reporting. Also, be aware that as your customer base grows, so will your need for anti-financial crime protocols and their associated costs. In addition, you’ll want to form relationships with regulators to increase the level of transparency within your institution. This includes having staff maintain open communication and reporting requirements with the necessary regulatory agencies. These actions will become even more important as regulations increase over time.

Implement Training and Professional Development

The success of your financial crime prevention system depends on the training and professional development of your staff. It’s important you hire seasoned professionals with the qualifications and experience necessary for implementing and adapting your framework and protocols designed to reduce financial crimes. Your employees must also remain current on regulatory changes and promote best practices by engaging in regular training and development opportunities.

To find the right job candidates to bring to your team and mitigate financial crime risk, contact CarterWill Search & Flex today to work with a leading recruiter in New York, Tampa and Wilmington.