Insights from the UK lenders’ roundtable

Recently I had the privilege of hosting ThirdEye’s first UK round table event, and what a pleasure it was! 

Held at the incredible Duck and Waffle in London, ThirdEye welcomed financial crime experts from a number of lenders, along with guest experts Ben Jones from the International Compliance Association, Brian Kinch from CIFAS and Jacob Thompson from LSEG.   

Amongst enjoying the spectacular views and amazing food, we covered a range of financial crime topics. The top agenda items for our attendees were data quality and reliability of MI. 

Data Quality  

As a provider of transaction monitoring and screening software, we at Jade are all too aware of the challenges faced by firms in relation to data quality. Whether the cause is legacy systems and historic data gaps, inputting errors, inconsistency across a number of core systems, poor third-party data (or any combination), the effectiveness of financial crime controls is detrimentally impacted as a result. Rubbish in = rubbish out, as the old saying goes. 

We discussed the importance of understanding your data, including acknowledging and remediating any shortfalls where possible, and common ways of structuring data to allow the most effective outcomes. 

MI Reliability 

This led us nicely to talk about Management Information (MI):

• What MI is produced?
• How reliable is it?
• What are the risks of basing decisions on poor-quality MI?

We talked about the risks of manipulating MI to present a different picture to senior management; whether that is to paint a more positive picture to gain or maintain stakeholder confidence, or paint a bleaker picture to “shock” the audience into action.   This topic understandably led to sharp intakes of breath in the room.  (This was risky in itself, being on the 40th floor we were already short of breath!) 

Breaking Down Hot Topics Over Dinner 

As our incredible dinner was served, we broke into smaller groups to discuss a variety of issues, including: 

• Managing false positives 
• The use of AI in financial crime detection 
• Maintaining motivation in financial crime teams 
• The importance of leadership and organisational culture in driving success 

Shared Experience and Community Support 

By the time we finished dessert, collectively we had shared a few hundred years of financial crime-fighting experience. We discussed common concerns and suggested some ways forward, although it’s fair to say that some challenges will go on and on. Sometimes the best value is in sharing and discovering we’re not alone in the things we’re dealing with, and as a community, we can support, help and continue to learn from each other.   

Looking Ahead to 2025 

The event left us inspired and eager for the next Jade ThirdEye UK roundtable. Until then, let’s continue to connect, support, and innovate together in the fight against financial crime. 

If you’re facing similar challenges, would like to join a future roundtable event or want to explore how Jade ThirdEye can help your organisation, we’d love to hear from you! Fill in the form below to speak with our team or arrange a demo today.