Olivia Kearney
Paul McLear
Plenitude Insights
AML/CTF/CPFFinancial crime continues to evolve, and with it, the pressure on firms to detect and address these risks. Yet whilst criminals continue to innovate, harming financial markets and society, developing and testing innovative solutions to better detect money laundering can remain challenging. This is why this project has been initiated – to support the use of technology in improving the effectiveness of AML systems in financial services.
This project aims to enable greater industry collaboration and offer practical support to firms – as set out in the FCA’s strategy. It also sits within the FCA’s wider strategic Synthetic Data programme which includes the Synthetic Data Expert Group (SDEG).
The project commenced in autumn 2024. Read an update on how the project is developing, its practical challenges, and an overview of next steps.
Conclusion
This project is not about building a perfect model or creating a universal benchmark. It is about exploring and developing tools, such as synthetic data, to improve what already exists and to create space for innovation. It is not a replacement for real operational AML testing. It is a practical starting point that aims to help identify where AML systems are performing well, and where more work is needed.
By providing a synthetic dataset that reflects real world data without revealing sensitive information, our project supports more informed decisions, faster iteration and better outcomes for financial institutions, vendors, the integrity of UK financial markets and ultimately the wider public. It is one step toward making AML systems more effective, adaptive and capable of meeting the challenges of tomorrow.
