Celebrating 15 years of world-leading regulatory and supervisory technology at AMLA®

In 2010, a small team of dedicated individuals came together with one aim: to develop regulatory and supervisory technology that would fight financial crime and protect financial systems on a global scale.

Now, 15 years on, AMLA® has over 100 employees and is the world leader in regulatory and supervisory technology, testing and validating sanction screening and transaction monitoring systems, and providing risk analytics for world governments and regulatory bodies alike.

The trust our solutions have gained around the world is absolute. Many of those we work with continue working with us to establish further control and understanding over their markets, solidifying us as the go-to experts within the AML/CFT testing, validation and risk analytics space.

Through our ongoing analysis of global results and trends, AMLA® continues to aid regulatory authorities in raising AML/CFT standards by comprehensive testing and implementing the appropriate controls and good practice guidance for their regulated entities in an environment that has evolved rapidly since our inception.

Pioneering the regulatory revolution

15 years ago, we pre-empted stricter regulatory requirements for financial institutions and increased enforcement, and we weren’t wrong.

In 2013 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) introduce its Revised Methodology for assessing how countries tackled the serious and very real threats of financial crime, shifting its focus from technical compliance to the actual effectiveness of AML/CFT regimes.

The dual assessment approach saw the FATF’s concern grow with regards to how effective the AML/CFT systems were in real-world practice, rather than just for regulatory alignment. As a result, our list of customers expanded, and we began to test the effectiveness and efficiency of thousands of financial systems on behalf of regulators in our Thematic Reviews.

In 2024 our work was at the forefront of the industry, leading to AMLA® being recognised as one of the organisations financial institutions should “keep an eye on” going into 2025 as we were named on RegTech Analyst’s RegTech100 list for the first time.

Our Thematic Review work

In 2014 we conducted the first ever Thematic Review for the South African Reserve Bank’s Banking Supervision Department (SARB BSD). We partnered with SARB BSD again in 2017 for a second Thematic Review, and they were able to demonstrate a 10% uplift in accuracy across the entire market, along with showcasing a complete shift to fully automated systems. Our work with SARB continues to this day, over a decade after we first started working with them.

Since then, our Thematic Review work has grown immensely in popularity and is gaining more momentum than ever, having worked with over 50 global regulators, testing more than 1500 financial systems for close to a thousand financial entities.

A market shift to a risk-based approach

We knew how archaic the process of carrying out risk assessments was and set out to create a risk analytics platform that would allow regulators to easily implement the FATF’s risk-based approach.

ORBS was created as a result (Online Risk Based Systems) and was initially designed for supervisory authorities to be able to see the entire accumulated risk of their entire market on one screen. Since its creation and initial implementation, however, ORBS has become so much more.

ORBS has revolutionised the way financial institutions report to regulators, bringing about never-seen-before levels of transparency in a bid to detect risks and neutralise the possibility of money laundering and terrorist financing occurring before it even starts.

One of the countries we work so closely with is Jamaica – a country who had been placed on the list of Jurisdictions under Increase Monitoring (more commonly known as the grey list). Since 2020, they occupied a spot on the grey list but in 2024 they were removed, having shown that as a country it had strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime.

AML Analytics is delighted to have been working so closely with Jamaica since 2020 to help them reach this significant milestone, and ORBS continues to provide critical oversight and understanding about the levels of AML/CFT risk within their jurisdiction.

This work was recognised, and in 2024 ORBS won the award for Best Risk Management Initiative at the Central Banking Awards. It was even stated at the awards that “an important element of Jamaica’s improving situation is due to the work AML Analytics has undertaken.”

The recognition wasn’t just about our work with Jamaica. It followed the breakthrough moment when AMLA® was highlighted for creating such an innovative platform, built to help supervisors, regulators, and businesses quickly identify which entities are truly meeting anti-money laundering (AML) standards.

Our work continues

As we reflect on the time since AMLA®’s creation and what the company as a whole has achieved, we remain more dedicated than ever to continue to expand into both established and emerging markets. We’ve spent the last 15 years disrupting a market that didn’t know it needed change, and our work continues during the most exciting period for the company yet.

To our customers, partners and team across the globe: thank you. Your trust, collaboration and dedication have shaped every step of this journey.