Infrasoft inks anti-laundering deal with Indonesian bank

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has entered into a $600,000 deal with Infrasoft Technologies to put in place the world's largest anti-money laundering (AML) deployment project. Following the Reserve Bank of India deadline of December 2005 for banks to have proper AML systems in place, Infrasoft is eyeing more such deals from Indian banks.

The new trend in the world of banking is of banks adopting AML solution across the entire bank unlike in the past when AML solutions were put in place in a small footprint, said Hanuman Tripathi, managing director, Infrasoft Technologies.

AML solutions sold to entities like Bank of America, Barclays and a host of other global banks including Bank of India's UK operations were limited to specific branches and geographies.

"The shift in the trend follows the change in technology, which can integrate multiple solutions in the bank and ensure wider coverage," added Tripathi.

BRI, formed in 1895, is one of the largest and oldest banks in the Asia Pacific region. It has 4,875 branches with approximately 3.9 crore customer accounts.

The bank is the first to deploy AML across all the 950 branches on the centralised core banking architecture. "This has been possible since our architecture allows for scaling up, unlike older technology built five years back," pointed out Tripathi.

Another reason why banks are implementing the software across all possible branches is the regulations. Correspondence banks, foreign governments and central banks are putting pressure on domestic banks to ensure proper surveillance systems are in place, said Tripathi.

Asia-Pacific accounts for 30 per cent of the $ 856-billion money laundering market today and the figure is expected to rise.