Bank of Montreal (BMO) is the winner of the 2020 Celent Model Bank Award for Risk Management. This is in recognition of its success in delivering considerable improvements to its AML and KYC operations through a major data infrastructure initiative on Hadoop, alongside modernising its legacy applications for both AML and KYC. The project resulted in significant long-term reductions in overall risk exposure, as well as substantial operational efficiencies for the bank. In addition, the new data architecture and upgraded AML/KYC platform will make it far easier for BMO to bring future innovation into its anti-financial crime operations. The was BMO’s first Big Data project, and the AML Technology team was required to break new ground. Its experience and learnings from this project have influenced many subsequent initiatives in the bank and will prove valuable as BMO moves ahead with its broader Big Data strategy.
