How a Global Insurer Modernized Its Sanctions & AML Screening with FinScan
- FinScan
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
A large, globally diversified insurance and asset management group operating under multiple regulatory jurisdictions faced increasingly complex sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance requirements. With operations spanning Europe, the US and Asia, the organization required a scalable, risk-based screening solution that could support high-volume screening, reduce false positives, and ensure robust governance across decentralized business units.
After years of success with using FinScan on-premise, the organization recently completed strategic migrations to FinScan in the cloud (SaaS) in EMEA and the US to unlock improved performance, streamline access, and enhance compliance capabilities.
Challenges & Goals
Navigating a complex regulatory landscape
The organization needed to align its AML and sanctions program with regulatory expectations from its Home Country Regulator while continuing to comply with a wide range of global sanctions regimes across its different markets, as well as the UN.
Aligning sanctions and AML screening outcomes with the company’s established risk appetite framework
Senior compliance leaders emphasized the importance of a clearly defined risk appetite and tolerance framework that supports risk-based decisions, particularly around sanctions risk assessments and inherent risk drivers such as geography, customer mix, and historical sanctions exposure.
Managing scale and operational complexity
From an operational standpoint, the group faced the challenge of managing sanctions and AML screening at enormous scale:
Approximately 70 million records screened daily
Over 100,000 alerts reviewed annually
10-15 business units across asset management, insurance, and regional subsidiaries
One business alone screening up to 20 million records
The decentralized model meant each business unit was responsible for alert review, placing strain on resources and creating variations in system configurations, alert volumes, and compliance expertise.
Data quality and configuration challenges
With the goal of reducing alert volumes and increasing operational efficiencies, the company sought to improve its internal data quality by addressing variations in external sanctions list data, especially where common names and limited identifiers were involved. In addition, smaller business units often lacked the experience to fine-tune match logic and system configurations effectively.
The Solution
Standardizing on FinScan for enterprise screening
Initially, the organization deployed FinScan on-premise across multiple business units to screen customer, employee, supplier, investment, and payment data against sanctions, PEP, adverse media, and internal lists. FinScan’s workflow tools and reporting functionality enabled decentralized reviews while preserving central oversight.
Configurable, risk-based screening
FinScan’s highly adjustable match strings, list selection, and risk logic allowed business units to tailor screening to local naming conventions and risk profiles. All configuration changes were subject to central compliance review, ensuring consistency with enterprise risk appetite and policy frameworks.
Transition to FinScan cloud/SaaS
In August 2025, the organization successfully migrated its EMEA screening hub to FinScan in the cloud. The cloud migration included:
Replication of multi-organization screening setups in a SaaS model
Individual batch screening configurations per business unit
Azure Active Directory (AD) Single Sign-On (SSO) for secure, streamlined access
Cross-team collaboration to address technical, operational, and compliance challenges
This highly complex cloud migration reinforced strong collaboration between the organization and FinScan, with insights and efficiencies that carried forward with the insurer’s migration of its largest business unit with the largest global screening footprint, of up to 20 million records.
Results & Impacts
FinScan has delivered clear enterprise-wide gains in efficiency, consistency, and governance. Data cleanup and configuration optimization have reduced operational noise, allowing analysts to focus on higher-value risk review. Screening outcomes are now more consistent across business units, coverage gaps have been closed, and compliance teams have greater confidence in both the completeness of screening and the explainability of screening decisions—supporting stronger oversight and alignment with the organization’s risk appetite.
Enterprise scalability and consistency
FinScan now supports screening across nearly the entire organization—spanning EMEA and the US—enabling centralized governance while meeting the unique needs of each business unit. Expansion into new regions and joint ventures is supported without compromising compliance integrity.
Better alert quality and operational efficiency
Through configuration optimization, data quality improvements, and cross-unit knowledge sharing:
A major regional unit reduced annual alert volumes by 40% through fine-tuning.
Alert rates are now actively monitored and optimized by screening category and business unit.
Outliers are investigated to identify data quality or configuration issues.
This approach has reduced operational burden while decreasing missed true risk signals or compliance risk.
Risk appetite operationalization
FinScan enables the organization to enforce its risk tolerance thresholds in practice, ensuring unlawful sanctions exposure is identified and escalated, and screening outcomes are aligned with the enterprise risk framework.
Stronger data quality discipline
The organization bolstered its efforts to enhance internal data quality and leverage secondary identifiers—directly reducing false positives and enhancing compliance confidence. Regulatory focus on data quality standards, including new formats like ISO 20022, underscored the strategic importance of this work.
Cloud-enabled future-proofing
With the successful migration of both EMEA and US hubs to FinScan in the cloud, the organization has:
Reduced reliance on internal IT infrastructure
Mitigated key-person risk
Established a scalable, standardized global screening model
Positioned itself to explore real-time screening, artificial intelligence (AI), and other advanced capabilities as regulatory and business needs evolve
“FinScan has proven it can support global scale and complex regulatory requirements without compromising control. Its configurable, risk-based screening enables effective management of sanctions risk, and the team has been a responsive, knowledgeable partner throughout our multi-region transition from on-premise to the cloud,” ~ Group Financial Crime Leader.
