Atos leads project to determine federated approach for detection of fraud and financial crime

Paris, Munich – 17 February 2022 – Driving efficiency improvements in the collaborative detection of fraud and financial crime is a central aim of a new Gaia-X related project led by Atos – one its founding members.

Gaia-X is a European initiative championing data sovereignty, and digital transformation aiming to develop a federation of data infrastructure in Europe and beyond.

With 2% – 5% of global GDP (€1.7-4 trillion) estimated to be laundered annually¹, the Federated Detection of Fraud and Financial Crime project is central to broader efforts implementing Gaia-X policies and architecture to build a secure and transparent data and cloud hub for member states, companies, and citizens.

The recognized capabilities of Atos in establishing innovation ecosystems alongside technological orchestration will be utilized as the program aims to create a cross-company and cross-border service and collaboration ecosystem to improve Anti-Fraud and Anti-Financial-Crime (AFC) and transparency over money and value flows.

Priority will be given to reducing the high proportion of false-positive transaction alerts and improving the detection of fraud and financial crime by sharing and analyzing information between participants. Efforts up to now have focused on tackling this challenge at an organizational level.

Organizations and businesses beyond the European Union in other parts of the globe could also benefit from the Federated Detection of Fraud and Financial Crime project says Carol Houle, SVP, Global Head of Financial Services & Insurance, Atos:

“Given that the majority of global transaction alerts are false positives, with each alert needing to be individually investigated, this remains a resource-intensive and costly matter that only a coordinated, cross-border response can address. Reimagining the end-to-end business value stream approach for the detection of fraud and financial crime, bringing the best data sharing, data analytics and high-performance-computing technologies together will help the banking industry to bring anti-money laundering costs down. Additionally, this will allow the public sector to combat such crime more effectively, ultimately benefiting the end customer.”

As the EU commissioner for financial services, Mairead McGuinness, has acknowledged: “Money laundering poses a clear and present threat to citizens, democratic institutions and the financial system.” Transactions involving “dirty” money account for about 1.5% of gross domestic product in the EU — that’s €133 billion ($157 billion). “The scale of the problem cannot be underestimated, and the loopholes that criminals can exploit need to be closed,” McGuinness is on record as saying.

The project, within the EuroDaT consortium, is also in preparation for the ambitious package of legislative changes to strengthen the EU’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing rules by the European Commission, what includes the creation of a new EU authority to fight money laundering.

Succeeding in the aims of the project could also benefit insurance companies by helping to detect cross-insurance companies double use of claim documentation in real-time – which is not currently standard practice, and which could contribute to a holistic fraud detection structure, leading to improved profits and a more positive image of insurers to customers.

¹Source: CEPS – ECRI Taskforce Report – ‘Anti-money laundering in the EU. Time To Get Serious’

***

 

Notes to Editors

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 107,000 employees and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on Euronext Paris and included in the CAC 40 ESG and Next 20 Paris Stock indexes.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

 

Press contact

Helena Shadbolt helena.shadbolt@mhpc.com +44 (0)20 3128 8799, Nick Collins nick.collins@mhpc.com +44 (0)20 3128 8897

 

About EuroDaT

• EuroDaT is a project comprising a consortium which aims to establish a neutral European data trustee (EuroDaT), more information at www.eurodat.org/en/. Members of EuroDaT are: Atos, d-fine, Deloitte, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), TechQuartier, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Ministry of Economic -Federal State of Hessia, , Lexemo, T-Systems International, Saarland University, ZEVEDI.
• The Federated Detection of Fraud and Financial Crime project is part of EuroDaT and runs for two years. It is partly funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Actions in Germany.