Celent's anti-money laundering vendor report: 2009 update

Celent's AML vendor evaluation reports have become something of a de facto standard, referenced by financial institutions and regulators around the world. We began covering the sector in 2003, and are about to start work on our 3rd edition of the report. Although initially the insurance industry was not seen as a high-risk area for AML, in recent years AML has grown as a concern for insurers and regulators. The behavior detection technology that underpins AML software has also expanded its boundaries within the financial institution. Celent has been behind the "enterprise risk" approach, that is, consolidating AML and anti-fraud efforts, since our first AML report back in 2002. But until the last few years there were few real-life examples to point to. Recently, however, financial institutions have become increasingly concerned with fighting fraud, including fraud committed by customers as well as employee fraud. And a growing number of firms are beginning to take a wholistic approach to these issues. So this time around our report will take an enterprise risk approach as well, by including in our evaluation the anti-fraud products of the AML vendors. We're calling it "Evaluating the Vendors of Enterprise Risk Management Solutions 2009." We'll be starting research on the report this month, beginning with qualifying vendors for inclusion in the report. The last edition evaluated 19 vendors and was 100 pages long. As the market has shifted, with new products emerging and others fading from sight, there may be some shuffling in order to keep the field of vendors representative of the marketplace. And although we are constantly looking at this space, we'd welcome any comments on vendors we should consider that we may have missed. As a reminder, the AML software providers evaluated in the 2006 edition of the report were: Accuity, Ace Software Solutions, ACI Worldwide, Actimize, ChoicePoint/Bridger Insight, Experian/Americas Software, Fortent/Searchspace, FircoSoft, LogicaCMG, Mantas, Metavante/Prime Associates, Fiserv/NetEconomy, Norkom Technologies, Northland Solutions, SAS Institute, Side International, STB Systems, Top Systems, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services/PCi