Financial institutions operating at scale face increasing regulatory pressure to evidence the effectiveness of sanctions, AML, and counter-terrorist financing controls—particularly in high-risk areas such as trade finance. At the same time, demand for experienced financial crime professionals continues to outstrip supply, creating acute resourcing challenges for large, complex reviews.

OpusDatum supported a Tier 1 international bank by deploying specialist financial crime professionals—from individual experts to coordinated teams—to deliver a multi-jurisdictional sanctions control review within its trade finance business.

Our Client

Our client is a Tier 1 international bank with a significant global trade finance footprint. Trade is central to its business model, with operations spanning emerging and developed markets and systems processing over US$1 million in trade turnover every minute.

The bank employs more than 5,800 trade specialists and supports a substantial proportion of global trade flows. Operating across multiple regulatory jurisdictions, it is subject to stringent AML, CTF, and sanctions obligations, making effective compliance oversight critical to its continued global operations and reputation.

The Challenge

Trade finance presents inherent financial crime risks, including exposure to sanctioned jurisdictions, complex counterparty structures, and high-value transactions. Regulatory scrutiny of trade finance sanctions controls has intensified, requiring institutions to demonstrate both robust frameworks and effective operational execution.

The client needed to conduct an in-depth review of its trade finance sanctions control environment across three jurisdictions: one in the Far East, one in the Middle East, and one in Central Europe. While a small global team existed, it lacked the capacity and specialist skill set required to deliver a review of sufficient depth, consistency, and pace across multiple regions.

Given OpusDatum’s prior experience supporting the client on trade finance and sanctions initiatives, we were engaged to provide expert delivery support.

Our Approach

OpusDatum worked alongside the client’s global teams, deploying experienced financial crime professionals to support the end-to-end review.

We provided dedicated project management expertise to oversee planning, governance, and delivery. This included maintaining project plans, risk registers, and budgetary controls, coordinating across time zones, and ensuring effective engagement with local management teams. Regular reporting ensured senior stakeholders had clear visibility of progress, risks, and emerging findings.

A tailored sanctions audit methodology was developed and implemented, specifically designed for trade finance operations. This risk-based framework assessed key sanctions controls, transaction monitoring processes, and escalation procedures, and was aligned with the client’s wider compliance framework. KPIs, audit trails, and documentation standards were embedded to support future thematic reviews and regulatory reporting.

To strengthen capability and sustainability, we delivered a tailored training programme for internal teams. This covered trade finance-specific sanctions risk, forensic review techniques, data analysis and reporting, and the effective use of sanctions monitoring tools. The training enabled internal teams to participate meaningfully in the review and build longer-term capability.

Multi-jurisdictional forensic support was provided through a combination of in-country resources and UK-based specialists. This included forensic transaction testing, independent sanctions alert re-decisioning, KYC testing, and end-to-end mapping of trade finance transaction lifecycles to identify control weaknesses and financial crime exposure.

A rigorous quality assurance framework was applied throughout the engagement to ensure findings were accurate, consistent, and regulator-ready. This included structured review of fieldwork, transaction testing, and issue documentation, as well as feedback loops to support remediation and control enhancement.

Key Benefits & Measurable Outcomes

The engagement enabled the client to deliver a consolidated, multi-jurisdictional sanctions review to senior management as part of its trade finance thematic programme.

Internal teams were equipped with a robust sanctions audit methodology and enhanced technical capability, allowing the bank to extend reviews to additional jurisdictions without reliance on external support.

Feedback from regional teams confirmed that the training and hands-on support significantly broadened their skill sets, enabling wider financial crime assessments across AML, CTF, bribery and corruption, and sanctions.

As a result, the bank strengthened its in-house financial crime capability, improved oversight of trade finance sanctions risk, and enhanced its ability to respond confidently to regulatory scrutiny.

How We Can Help

Access to the right expertise at the right time is critical to effective financial crime compliance.

If your organisation needs specialist financial crime professionals to support sanctions reviews, trade finance assurance, or complex multi-jurisdictional projects, OpusDatum can help. We deliver experienced practitioners who integrate seamlessly into your teams and drive high-quality outcomes from day one.

Contact us today to discuss how we can support your financial crime compliance and regulatory delivery needs.