AMLiss advisory services
Recent anti-money laundering and customer due diligence directives introduced in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority means that fi increasing scrutiny to identify, assess and mitigate suspicious activity and illegal financing. Such pressures become altogether more challenging when dealing with source material in a language other than English.
AMLiss is a specialised service that assesses suspected fraud, forgery or misinformation within foreign language documents. Developed by Today Translations and Today Advisory in cooperation with experts in linguistics and economic crime investigation, AMLiss is divided into three separate tiers of multilingual assurance in a streamlined and cost-effective manner:
Review and identification of key information
Key information within the document is extracted, translated and cross referenced by the linguist. The translation of these key facts is then certified and given a unique reference number, necessary in the event of an audit or evidential processes.
Content verification
Financial and legal institutions carry a legal obligation to know their customer. However, sometimes criminals succeed in hiding the illegal source of their wealth using forged documentation. Today Translations and its network of linguists and regional and sectoral experts employ their expertise and analytical skills to highlight factual irregularities within documents or verbal communications that may indicate suspicious activity.
Multilingual risk management training
AMLiss professionals, partners and clients need to learn of the risks associated with assessing multilingual documentation. These include highlighting the specific risks associated with different multilingual documentation, outlining good and bad diligent practices, and identifying criminal typographies prevalent in document forgery.
Today Translations also provides tailored training courses in cultural awareness, as well as continuous professional development (CPD) accredited courses in partnership with the Centre for Investigative Learning.
It has become a legal obligation to know your customer. This tried and tested approach is the most comprehensive and consultative approach to help professional organisations identify and tackle the risks associated with multilingual documentation.
Fraudsters steal an estimated £193bn a year from individuals in the UK
Fraud is costing the UK economy nearly £200bn per year – or more than £6,000 per second – with businesses being the biggest targets, according to a report by the University of Portsmouth.
The study discovered that the private sector was losing roughly £144bn of the £193bn total lost to fraud every year. In particular, procurement fraud, such as issuing fake invoices and awarding contracts off the back of bribery, accounted for £127bn of the fraud the report identified.
Only a tiny percentage of fraud is reported to the police and according to Action Fraud, the UK fraud reporting centre, the types of fraud which resulted in the biggest loss per person were bank account transfers; mortgage fraud; financial investment frauds; Ponzi schemes and share sales (boiler room) fraud. Many frauds can be prevented by carrying out due diligence at an early stage. However, individuals rarely have the expertise or resources to conduct proper checks and frequently make investment decisions based solely on trust and the information presented to them. Today Advisory provides clients with a range of high quality, cost effective solutions to manage risks and respond to unforeseen circumstances.
Trust but check
Bribery, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations place a duty on regulated professionals to comply with customer due diligence requirements when doing business. They are also required to report suspicious activity and maintain records and anyone failing to comply can face serious penalties. The principle of ‘know your customer’ forms the bedrock of good, ethical business practice and in many cases should be extended to ‘know your customer’s customer’, ‘Know your supplier’ and in the case of an investor, ‘Know your broker’. If you are a private investor or a smaller financial firm and want the assurance of knowing those you are dealing with (whether the law requires it or not), you trust but check. Today Advisory can help you to identify and manage your multilingual risks. For example, if you deal with a client or broker who does not speak your native language and part of your due diligence rests on documents that have been translated or on information supplied to you through an interpreter, you want to know that the information you receive is accurate and that nothing is hidden in translation. Our linguists and experts are safe, trusted and independent and can help you reduce your risks. For free practical guidance on protecting your business from corruption visit the Fraud Advisory Panel.
Warning – translation may be your unseen risk factor
Data and information security is a priority in Financial Services, Legal and Accounting Services, Government, and other sectors where fraud commercial, political or reputational damage can be caused by leaks. Most organisations in these sectors have strict controls over internal data usage, storage and transfer. However, very few companies, departments or individual investors can claim to have the capability to manage all language translation needs in-house and even these may not operate to the highest security standards. Translation services may be the weak point in your data integrity chain and you may not even have considered the risk. Today Translations is unique in providing a specialist, secure translation and multilingual risk management service that is backed by physical, digital and personnel security standards that meet the data protection needs of our clients while providing the highest possible quality of service. For free practical guidance on protecting your business from supplier fraud visit the Fraud Advisory Panel.
Compliant, effective and safe
Whether you require a vetted linguist with legal training to review sensitive files as part of your e-disclosure or e-discovery case or an interpreter with security expertise to provide executive protection, Today Advisory have the people, knowledge and systems to meet your needs. Find out more about our Supplier and Service Integrity measures and Document Verification service.
