Google rolls out AI-based anti-money laundering tool for enterprises

Google Cloud has announced the launch of a new anti-money laundering (AML) service relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to spot anomalies in financial transactions.

In a blog post, Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) stated that the new AI service is tailored to retail and commercial banking and can operate across multiple jurisdictions. Leveraging machine learning, Google claims the service can detect four times more confirmed suspicious activities than traditional detection systems.

“AI-powered transaction monitoring replaces the manually defined, rules-based approach and harnesses the power of financial institutions’ own data to train advanced machine learning (ML) models to provide a comprehensive view of risk scores,” the blog post read.

Google stated that incorporating AI in AML detection reduces operational costs while eliminating false positives in the process. The model highlights risks following scrutiny of patterns and examining transactions and customer relationships.

In terms of pricing, the company employs two main components, with the first being dependent on the number of banking customers that the AML risk scoring is used on. The second involves the model training and tuning based on the number of customers.

Google’s new AML offering has seen action after a trial at U.K.-based HSBC, significantly reducing processing times for its customer. The successes of the program saw HSBC receive the Celent Model Risk Manager of the Year 2023, with several financial institutions eager to integrate the system into their processes.

“By enhancing our customer monitoring framework with Google Cloud’s sophisticated AI-based product, we have been able to improve the precision of our financial crime detection and reduce alert volumes, meaning less investigation time is spent chasing false leads,” Jennifer Calvery, Head of Financial Crime Risk and Compliance, remarked.

Across the financial industry, there is a heightened resolve to improve AML processes, with regulators keen to extend existing AML rules to the digital currency industry.

Google’s AI push set to rival OpenAI

In the last six months, Google has emerged as a leading player in AI following the launch of its generative AI platform Bard seeking to rival the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Since its launch, the company has expressed an intent to align itself with global regulators, pledging to offer the U.K. with priority access for its future AI projects. However, things have not gone according to plan after Bard’s EU launch was blocked by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for failing to give proper notice.

Aside from a push into AI, the firm has released a suite of financial services, including its Google Pay and NFC-based Google-sponsored debit cards.