With integrated solutions in risk, strategy, projects and people, Camms business software will help you make the right decisions, manage risks, align the talents of your organisation, and focus on what matters.
Read the latest insights from the Camms team.
Brad Smith | October 13, 2020
GRC rolls off the tongue nicely and suggests that all components are working together in meeting the organisation’s objectives.
Adam Collins | October 2, 2020
We are excited to announce that our industry recognized Risk Management Software Solution, Camms.Risk, was yet again named as a “High Performer” in the GRC software category by G2 in their Fall 2020 report. This marks the 3rd consecutive quarter in 2020 Camms.Risk has been recognized by G2 in its quarterly Grid report.
Daniel Kandola | October 1, 2020
Transferring products from A to B quickly and efficiently is the name of the game in the constantly moving world of transportation and logistics. Unfortunately, a myriad of variables means this process is rarely as easy as ABC at the best of times – and 2020 is proving more algebra than alphabet. Navigating a clear course within the sector has never been so challenging. Existing risks have been overshadowed – or in some cases accelerated – by an unprecedented global event that has brought the importance of organisational resilience into sharp focus: the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beau Murfitt | September 25, 2020
Major banking institutions have been at pains to stress their determination to overhaul their ability to combat financial crime of late – following a string of high-profile corruption scandals. Unfortunately, these claims appear to be words without substance after a disturbing tale of leaked documents, dirty money, and international crime emerged – one that sounds more like something from a Netflix crime drama than the world of regulatory compliance.
Daniel Kandola | September 17, 2020
The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has completely blindsided society in 2020, with devastating effect. But was this cataclysmic event a black swan? It appears not. According to the National Risk Register – an overview of the risks of major emergencies that could impact the UK in the next five years – the threat of a pandemic was firmly on the government’s radar: “experts agree that there is a high probability of another influenza pandemic occurring, but it is impossible to forecast its exact timing or the precise nature of its impact.” In fact, of all the high consequence risks outlined in the register – from severe weather to terrorist attacks – a pandemic was considered to have the highest potential impact.
This threat wasn’t classified information reserved for senior figures in Whitehall; it had filtered down to local government level. Take Camden Council, for example, which – like other local authorities – already had information about pandemic risk fed to them by Public Health England. Camden subsequently rated a ‘pandemic flu’ as a 4/5 likelihood and 5/5 for potential damage on its risk register – proof that more high-profile risks like terror and cyber-attacks weren’t their only focus when it came to organisational resilience.
Daniel Kandola | September 10, 2020
What a difference a year can make. Cast your mind back to 2019: the global defence sector was on the offensive due to budget increases and military modernisation was the plan of attack, as growing security concerns forced governments to invest heavily in new equipment. So much so that international defence expenditure was forecast to grow between 3% and 4% in 2020 to reach an estimated US$1.9 trillion – driven by increased spending in the US, Russia, China and India.
Daniel Kandola | September 2, 2020
Successful organisational resilience relies heavily on the four sights: insight, foresight, oversight and hindsight. Unfortunately, anticipating and preparing for sudden
Brad Smith | August 31, 2020
Effective enterprise risk management has never been more critical.
Warwick Kirby | August 24, 2020
McKinsey & Company published an insightful article in March 2020 – Beyond coronavirus: the path to the next normal.
Kevin Sneader and Shubham Singhal stated, that to win the war against Coronavirus required action across five horizons: Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination, and Reform.
Brad Smith | August 5, 2020
The impact of the massive global disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 has been felt in virtually every organizsation, workplace, and household around the world. With or without an effective vaccine, the pandemic’s far reaching impacts will be felt globally for some time to come.
Camms | July 23, 2020
Camms has continually evolved since we were founded in 1996! With nearly 25 years of experience in business software solutions, we have continually invested in making our software right for supporting organizations to achieve their goals.
Camms | July 22, 2020
Camms, a next generation provider of integrated solutions in risk, strategy, projects, and people is pleased to announce that experienced President, Barbara Walker has joined the organization as the new President of North America.
Warwick Kirby | July 21, 2020
Nothing highlighted the necessity of integrating your risk management framework with your strategic operations more than the global pandemic of 2020.
Vicky Wright | June 19, 2020
As councils focus on protecting employees, their elected members and members of the community from the ongoing pandemic, virtual meetings have become the norm.
Camms | June 11, 2020
To provide our customers with assurance around Camms' ongoing commitment to information security management, we are pleased to announce that we have recently achieved certification of the ISO 27001:2013 standard for our major offices around the globe. This followed an in-depth set of assessments over the past 6 months including onsite audits in all locations.
Camms | June 4, 2020
The largest implementation partner of Adaptive Insights in the APAC region, GK Horizons, are trusted by their customers across various industry verticals to improve not only their financial insights but their business agility and overall performance.
Brad Smith | June 1, 2020
Today’s climate proves that both local and global events can significantly impact the strategy and operations of an organisation. With key attributes in today’s volatile and uncertain environment being agility and flexibility,
Camms | June 1, 2020
In the context of the current corporate landscape, it no surprise that the concept of risk is inevitable and inherent,
Camms | June 1, 2020
What does it mean to be a leader in these uncertain times?
Camms | May 25, 2020
The impact of COVID-19 has presented major challenges to people and organisations around the globe. Business leaders are managing the crisis
Brad Smith | May 14, 2020
The year 2020 could be characterized by comments like “We didn’t see that coming” or “Well, that escalated quickly”.
Camms | April 22, 2020
Are you concerned about the restrictions imposed by running your risk management out of spreadsheets?
Camms | April 21, 2020
Tomorrow needs pace, agility and quick decisive management. Today is the day to invest in the right risk management software. Rapid change is a constant in today’s environment.
Camms | April 10, 2020
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the business world and organisations are forced to adjust
Camms | February 25, 2020
CAMMS was excited to take part at the recently held LG PRO Annual Conference. As the largest and most notable Local Government Conference in Australia,
Camms | January 7, 2020
How do you manage SM & CR compliance?
SM & CR has been a catalyst for change,
Yasith Fernando | November 25, 2019
Sustainable Software Development refers to a set of principles and practices which enables a team to maintain an optimal speed in development indefinitely for the sustainability of the development team and ergo, the company.
Aaron Mullins | November 18, 2019
It was a fantastic opportunity for CAMMS to take part in the RMIA Annual Conference 2019
Camms | May 30, 2019
Camden Council is one of the fastest growing Local Government Areas (LGA) in Australia,
Camms | May 25, 2019
Enterprise risk management has a primary objective of ensuring organizations comply with legal and
Camms | May 6, 2019
An organisation’s reputation is highly significant in achieving its goals.
With integrated solutions in risk, strategy, projects and people, Camms business software will help you make the right decisions, manage risks, align the talents of your organisation, and focus on what matters.
Major banking institutions have been at pains to stress their determination to overhaul their ability to combat financial crime of late – following a string of high-profile corruption scandals. Unfortunately, these claims appear to be words without substance after a disturbing tale of leaked documents, dirty money, and international crime emerged – one that sounds more like something from a Netflix crime drama than the world of regulatory compliance.
More than 2,500 files from FinCEN (the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) have been leaked – including internal bank data, public records, Freedom of Information Act filings, public records lawsuits, and requests for federal courts to unseal records.
The murky information within reveals how some Western banking giants have been moving trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, which originate from drug cartels, organised crime groups, and corrupt leaders – money that is funding some of the most nefarious activities you can imagine: war, terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking, modern slavery. All laundered clean through these banks, despite the regulatory and legal compliance obligations that are in place to stop it.
Even more concerning is the banks complicity in this. Rather than complying with the law, some have repeatedly processed transactions from clients that had been flagged with Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) – ignoring warnings and sanctions from US regulators in the process.
The actions of the banks identified in the leaked documents have severely compromised their reputation at a time when traditional financial institutions are already under the microscope – and now Britain’s banking system, in particular, is in sharp focus: over 3,000 British companies were named in the leaked SARs – more than any other country in the world. This unwanted tag is damaging the UK's international reputation. For example, a leaked report from the US Treasury has labelled Britain as a "higher-risk jurisdiction", comparing it to notorious financial centres "such as Cyprus" in its role.
This is corruption on a global scale, stretching far beyond just the shores of Britain. From Ukraine to the US, Turkey to Turkmenistan, the magnitude of the laundered trillions is mind-boggling. The banks identified in the FinCEN Files frequently processed suspicious transactions for companies registered with addresses in the UK, US, Cyprus, Hong Kong, UAE, Russia, and Switzerland – without knowing the ultimate owner of the account. If laundering profits from drug wars and fortunes embezzled from developing countries wasn’t bad enough, these financial institutions were warned of their actions by their own employees’ – but chose to turn a blind eye. By facilitating money laundering they can also be accused of accelerating economic inequality, draining public funds, undermining democracy, and destabilising nations – none of which are top of the to-do list when it comes to building consumer trust and confidence.
The impact on the banks named in the leak was immediate: HSBC's share price fell to its lowest level since 1995 amid the allegations – in Hong Kong, shares dropped more than 5.3% and in London, they fell by a similar amount.
If consumer trust in the financial services sector was already fragile, it has been shattered by these revelations – which poses the question: how was this possible in the first place, given the banks regulatory and legal compliance obligations around anti-money laundering? After all, financial services institutions have a legal responsibility, as well as a moral responsibility, to prevent this from happening.
Banks are meant to be the first line of defence against suspicious transactions and money laundering. However, the laws that were supposed to prevent financial crime have instead allowed it to flourish – and some have been quick to cash in. Without adequate supervision and accountability for these institutions and their employees – who are often left to make sense of vast numbers of transactions using limited resources – they have little incentive to prevent suspicious activity. This creates an unhealthy environment in which SARs – and other safeguards – become hollow deterrents that can be easily exploited by criminals. While the banks view them as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card, having chosen not to halt the suspicious activity they have already flagged.
These blatant failures are made more concerning when we consider the sweeping powers banks have at their disposal to investigate potential and existing account holders – and their inability to deploy them effectively. The leaked FinCEN Files reveal that some financial institutions fail to perform even the most basic due diligence checks on new customers, such as verifying where a business is located. These unacceptable oversights provide criminal organisations with a foot in the door; allowing them to hide behind shell corporations that have been registered without the necessary details – and ultimately infiltrate their criminal proceeds into the global financial system.
The question should be asked: do these banks care about reputational risk? After all, this is the latest in a long line of crises and scandal that have left consumers with a sour taste in their mouth – and few would bet on it being the last. Acknowledging a mistake and claiming your culture will vastly improve as a result is the easy part of the recovery process; actually doing something about it appears much harder. Some might suggest that the consistent failure to improve values and behaviours is indicative of a banking culture that is as economically driven as ever.
Any industry – and businesses therein – with anti-money laundering requirements can learn important lessons from these examples of cultural inadequacies. This should inspire a drive for cultural change and a standard level of ethical behaviour that is underpinned by transparency. Unfortunately, anti-money laundering programmes are often stifled because they operate as silos. This prevents relevant people from viewing crucial data in a reasonable timeframe and a comprehensible manner – isolating the risk and leading to mistakes. To overcome this common problem, businesses must implement proactive measures that support the transparent flow of information across the organisation – empowering the right people to make the right decisions at the right time.
Once a proactive compliance culture has been embedded in an organisation, it will be well-placed to implement robust risk management controls – from compliance management capabilities and incident reporting and monitoring tools to IT risk management platforms. Without the necessary culture required to drive these controls and make them meaningful, they will remain ineffective.
Camms can help your business to integrate robust risk controls and make informed decisions using solutions that provide a comprehensive approach to governance, risk and compliance. For example, through Camms Partner Network we can offer world-leading regulatory content and regulatory intelligence feeds integrated into Camm.Risk, to offer a rich repository of information – ensuring you remain up to date with changing rules and regulations.
Find out more about how Camms support our financial services customers and request a demo call today.
Beau Murfitt
Chief Strategy Officer
UX DESIGN | SEPTEMBER 20 2021
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.
UX DESIGN | SEPTEMBER 20 2021
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.
With integrated solutions in risk, strategy, projects and people, Camms business software will help you make the right decisions, manage risks, align the talents of your organisation, and focus on what matters.