Global financial crime networks exploit fragmentation in payment systems, jurisdictional boundaries, and inconsistent data standards to obscure illicit activity. As transaction volumes increase and sanctions regimes become more complex, financial institutions require intelligence-led analytics capable of identifying cross-border risk at scale.

OpusDatum supported a global banking client to transform fragmented payments data into a unified analytics capability, strengthening financial crime detection, investigation, and regulatory compliance across global operations.

Our Client

Our client is a leading global banking and financial services institution headquartered in London and New York, with operations in more than 50 countries and a customer base exceeding 48 million. The bank operates across retail, corporate, and investment banking and relies on advanced financial crime analytics to support detection engines, investigations, risk assessment, and regulatory reporting.

The institution sought to better quantify and categorise financial crime risk, assess the effectiveness of existing controls, and enhance its ability to detect money laundering, sanctions evasion, and other illicit activity across complex cross-border payment flows.

The Challenge

Historically, the bank structured transactional data by country and business unit. While operationally efficient, this siloed approach was misaligned with the reality of modern financial crime, where criminal networks operate across borders and adapt rapidly to evade detection.

Despite processing significant daily payment volumes, the fragmented data architecture limited the bank’s ability to trace illicit flows across jurisdictions, identify complex transaction patterns, and generate enterprise-wide financial crime intelligence. The lack of a unified view created heightened regulatory, operational, and reputational risk, particularly in relation to cross-border money laundering and sanctions compliance.

Our Approach

OpusDatum designed and implemented a robust, scalable payments analytics solution to unify global transaction data and enable intelligence-led financial crime detection.

We integrated payment data from core banking platforms using SWIFT MT and ISO 20022 message formats, standardising disparate datasets into a single analytical framework. To address data sovereignty and localisation requirements, a centralised data warehouse was supported by satellite databases in jurisdictions where cross-border data transfer was restricted. This ensured regulatory compliance while maintaining global visibility of payment flows.

The analytics architecture was optimised to support both predefined monitoring scenarios and complex ad-hoc investigations. Financial crime teams were able to interrogate data across multiple dimensions, including customer profiles, transaction values, jurisdictions, currencies, corridors, and behavioural patterns. Advanced search and analytical capabilities enabled free-text and pattern-based analysis, supporting the identification of anomalies, hidden networks, and emerging financial crime typologies.

A user-centric interface ensured accessibility for investigators, compliance teams, risk officers, and internal audit functions. Strong data governance and privacy controls were embedded throughout the platform to align with regulatory expectations while enabling effective internal use of financial intelligence.

Key Benefits & Measurable Outcomes

The implementation delivered a material improvement in the client’s financial crime capabilities, shifting from fragmented monitoring to a comprehensive, intelligence-driven operating model.

Enhanced Financial Crime Detection

Real-time analysis of global payment flows improved identification of money laundering, fraud, and sanctions evasion risks. Cross-border visibility reduced blind spots and enabled more accurate detection of complex, multi-jurisdictional activity.

Improved Investigative Efficiency

Unified data and advanced search functionality significantly reduced the time required to identify, analyse, and escalate suspicious transactions, allowing investigators to focus on genuine risk.

Empowered Compliance and Audit Functions

Self-service analytics enabled compliance teams, risk functions, and internal audit to independently assess control effectiveness, identify weaknesses, and respond proactively to emerging risks.

Stronger Regulatory Compliance and Reporting

Centralised access to financial crime intelligence improved responsiveness to regulatory enquiries and strengthened audit readiness. Automated reporting reduced manual effort while improving accuracy and consistency.

Scalable and Future-Ready Infrastructure

The solution was designed to accommodate increasing data volumes and evolving regulatory requirements, ensuring long-term sustainability and resilience across jurisdictions.

Need Expert Support?

If your organisation is grappling with fragmented payment data, cross-border financial crime risk, or increasing regulatory scrutiny, OpusDatum can help. Our expertise in financial crime analytics, payments data architecture, and sanctions-aware compliance enables institutions to move from reactive monitoring to intelligence-led prevention.

Contact us today to discuss how we can strengthen your financial crime detection and regulatory resilience.