Money Service Businesses

A smart and cost-effective AML solution designed to meet the unique needs of MSBs.

Be Compliant. Avoid Fines.

Like other financial institutions, Money Services Businesses (MSBs) are required to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program.

These financial institutions, which may include those offering money orders, traveler’s checks, check cashing, currency exchange and/or money transfer services, Alessa offers an end-to-end AML solution that has the ability to connect transactions from the same sender (or same receiver) across different retail outlets in order to help identify suspicious transactions or money laundering schemes. Features of the solution include:

Analytics to Know Your Customer (KYC)
Transaction screening to identify suspicious transactions
Automated reporting to ease reporting to regulators
Workflows to guide processes
Case management to track investigations for audits and examinations
Dashboards to monitor the performance of programs

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Features & Benefits

KYC Analytics

Connect transactions to or from same person across branches to identify suspicious activities.

Transaction Monitoring

Review every transaction to flag any that may be part of a money laundering scheme.

Transaction Screening

Screen receivers and senders to ensure they are not sanctioned or high-risk entities.

Regulatory Reporting

Automated creation, validation and e-filing of reports for various jurisdictions.

Risk Scoring

Realistic assessment of risks based on entity profile and activity that is configurable.

Investigation Tools

Workflows, case management that engages the entire organization in compliance.

AML Obligations for MSBs

MSBs are required by law to have an effective AML compliance program. According to FinCEN, this includes:

Implementing policies, procedures, internal controls for compliance;
Designating a compliance officer for day-to-day operations;
Providing education and/or training of appropriate personnel and
Having independent program reviews.

MSBs should also:

Properly identify all persons conducting financial transactions
Review transactions for potential illegal activity
File suspicious activity and threshold reports

Many MSBs rely on Alessa to meet their AML compliance obligations.

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Transaction Monitoring for MSBs

Alessa allows MSBs to review all transactions and identify suspicious or out-of-compliance transactions. This may include:

Transactions from a single customer that when combined breach an acceptable daily/weekly/monthly threshold
Customers that are receiving payments from many sources or sending money from different locations
Different customers using the same addresses or ID numbers
Multiple customers sending wire transactions from within the same city to the same receiver(s)
Individuals with debits or credits in excess of $10,000 over a 24-hour period at any location

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KYC Analytics

MSBs don’t use the same onboarding systems and processes as banks which can make it difficult to detect money laundering schemes.

Using data and know your customer analytics, Alessa is able to help MSBs connect transactions from the same sender (or same receiver) across different retail outlets in order to help identify cases where:

Two/more customers use similar IDs
Customer alters spelling or order of his/her full name
Customers attempt to hide the size of a large cash transaction
Two or more customers are working together to break one transaction into multiple transactions in order to evade reporting or record keeping requirements
Customer uses two or more locations or cashiers in order to break one transaction into smaller transactions to evade reporting or record keeping requirement

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