20 April 2022
‘Fulfilling our gatekeeper role is a top priority at ABN AMRO. Much attention is paid to the prevention of financial crime, with the Detecting Financial Crime (DFC) department being the embodiment of this within the bank. A club that has grown in a short time to approximately 3,800 employees who all have to fit into our processes. It is up to our team to work with the business to strengthen its capabilities.’
Laura van Lambalgen is Strategy Consultant Detecting Financial Crime. She studied Business Administration at the VU and gained her first work experience at a consultancy organisation with a passion for operational processes. Just over three years later, she made the switch to ABN AMRO. ‘I like the dynamics of consultancy; analysing problems and finding solutions by connecting people. This allows you to forge a very strong bond with an organisation and, as an external consultant, I was sorry to have to say goodbye every time. That is why I made the switch to a single permanent employer and can now take all my experience and contacts from one project to another. My choice of ABN AMRO was also prompted by the fact that, within DFC, I contribute to combating the social problems that are associated with, for example, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Now with the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, you see how important it is that we know who our customers are.'
Data is the basis
‘There are many areas in DFC where there is a need for data and its translation into useful insights. Transaction Monitoring analysts, for example, need it for their detective work, but the timely delivery of data is also crucial for reporting to management and the regulator. Everyone recognises that, but at the same time, it is a challenge to meet all data needs. How to better match the supply of all data with demand is the focus of the current project I am working on. I talk to a lot of people for this and part of that is not being afraid to ask stupid questions. I notice that processes are often taken for granted, while if you look at them from a distance they really should not. Only if you challenge the existing logic and keep on asking questions do things become clear.
A good example is the use of the DFC data lake, the central data platform for DFC. The data was available on this platform, but could not be used properly by the party that needed it. Because although everyone is doing a good job from his/her own field of interest, they don’t always know where to find each other and sometimes the necessary coordination for optimal cooperation is lacking. As an internal consultant, you identify problems like these and, in this case, solve them by bringing the right parties together to work towards a structural solution.’
Proactive
‘New laws and regulations and the focus of regulators and politicians mean that the world of DFC is constantly changing. As Strategy Consultants, we must keep the initiative if we want to anticipate this properly. From a strategic point of view, we are looking at the areas where we can achieve the most added value for DFC in the fight against financial crime. It's rewarding work and very suitable if you want to get stuck into complex change and improvement programmes!’
