Betway, the online gambling company, is working with Accuity, the leading global provider of risk and compliance, payments and know your customer solutions, to optimise its financial crime compliance screening capability at a time when gambling firms are under pressure to balance regulatory demands with maintaining a seamless customer experience.

The UK Money Laundering Regulations 2018 and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) are pushing many gambling firms to take greater responsibility for understanding who their customers are and whether it is safe or ethical to do business with them. For many, this has meant a significant shift in culture as well as a move to implement additional compliance processes, which can be costly and time consuming.

Having implemented Firco Compliance Link, an Accuity solution for screening customer accounts and transactions against regulatory watch lists in 2016, Betway is now upgrading the technology to include the Automated Screening Manager (ASM), providing the compliance team with fast, consolidated intelligence on positive matches. The enhanced solution will enable Betway to provide an efficient service to its growing community, whilst continuing to adhere to the increasingly stringent compliance obligations placed on financial services firms and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs).

Nick Wilson, EMEA Director, Accuity, said: “We believe Betway is ahead of the curve, having made the shift several years ago to recruit compliance talent from the banking sector and implement a robust financial crime compliance screening programme. The business is proactively looking ahead to the next challenge, which is to optimise its operational procedures, increase efficiency and ensure a seamless customer experience.”

With most gambling activity being cash heavy and non-face-to-face, it is vital that screening is not a one off activity. By implementing Firco Compliance Link – ASM, Betway will be able to continuously screen its customer base against caution lists from major sanctioning bodies and law enforcement agencies worldwide, and receive automated alerts when a potential red flag is identified. Hits and non-hits alike will be stored, providing a full audit trail of all data entered, rather than just those where positive matches are made. Betway will benefit from reduced overall processing times and manual intervention, improving the customer experience through faster on-boarding whilst also operating at a high standard of financial crime compliance.

Anthony Werkman, CEO, Betway Group, said: “At Betway we are dedicated to rooting out money laundering activity and developing our defences against financial crime. Firco Compliance Link – ASM enables us to continuously monitor our client base, reduce false positives and demonstrate a full audit trail to regulators. The system gives me confidence that our business is equipped to operate safely and ethically, and most importantly, that our clients are protected.”