Bank of Valletta adopts Resistant AI’s Anti-Money Laundering product to tackle financial crime and meet evolving regulatory expectations

PRAGUE - Resistant AI, the AI and machine learning financial crime prevention specialists, today announces that Bank of Valletta, the largest bank in Malta, is to adopt its Transaction Forensics product for anti-money laundering (AML). It will enable the bank to prevent and detect transactions that are suspected of being involved in money laundering or sanctions evasion.

Traditionally, banks' transaction monitoring processes have consisted of reporting suspicious transactions—values, senders, recipients—to law enforcement or regulatory bodies after they have been processed. As sanctions against the Russian regime increase, forward-looking banks are increasingly seeking to prevent criminals from using their services for illicit purposes by stopping unusual transactions in real time.

Bank of Valletta's use of Resistant AI's innovative transaction monitoring capabilities is one of the first of its kind by a major bank. The AI-powered monitoring takes place in real time, allowing the bank to further its protections against financial crime in line with changing regulations and internal risk assessments. It can receive huge amounts of real-time data and process it in seconds to uncover patterns and anomalies that suggest suspicious activity. Resistant AI’s technology adds sophistication to transaction monitoring capabilities to the bank, without requiring a wholesale overhaul of the bank’s current systems. 

Ryan Caruana, Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Bank of Valletta says, “We are pleased that our bank is leading the way in innovation in Malta, to remain compliant with regulatory mandates. We selected Resistant AI based on their ability to provide best in class analytical capabilities.”

Martin Rehak, CEO and Founder of Resistant AI says, “Resistant AI is proud to assist Bank of Valletta in providing truly innovative transaction monitoring capabilities. Our focus on enhancing customers’ existing tech with innovative AI is the ideal response to the rapidly shifting regulatory landscape around money laundering, offering a convenient way to improve a company’s capabilities without overhauling their whole system.”

About Bank of Valletta

BOV was formed in 1974 following an agreement between the Government of Malta and the Malta Development Corporation.

The Bank of Valletta Group (the Group) comprises Bank of Valletta p.l.c. (the Bank) and two subsidiary companies namely BOV Asset Management Limited (BOVAM) and BOV Fund Services Limited (BOVFS). The Group also has two equity-accounted investee companies, MAPFRE Middlesea p.l.c. and MAPFRE MSV Life p.l.c. 

The Group offers banking, financial and investment services and connected activities within the domestic Maltese market. The principal activities of the Bank comprise the following:

1. The receipt and acceptance of customers’ monies for deposit in current, savings and term accounts which may be denominated in Euro and other major currencies,
2. The provision of loans and advances to a wide array of customers, and
3. The provision of investment services, covering a comprehensive suite of investment products and services that meet the  customers’ needs throughout their life cycle, including stockbroking, advisory and discretionary portfolio management services.

The Group also provides a number of other services, including, bancassurance, corporate advisory, fund management, fund administration, and other services, such as 24-hour internet banking service, issuance of major credit cards, night safe facilities, automated teller machines, foreign exchange transactions, outward and inward payment transfers.

The Bank's financial services are offered through a network of 40 branches and agencies in Malta and Gozo. Through these networks, the Bank has built the necessary backbone to service its customers in banking and trade transactions.

Find out more about Bank of Valletta: https://www.bov.com/ 

About Resistant AI

Resistant AI was founded in 2019 in Prague by a team with deep expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer security. It was the same team that was behind Cognitive Security, which was sold to Cisco in 2013, and has decades’ worth of experience in tackling the ever-changing nature of financial crime. Resistant AI has developed start-of-the-art machine learning techniques so that financial services can be protected from manipulation and attack. 

The company’s solutions are already protecting a number of banks, insurers, and fintech companies across the whole customer life cycle, and are being used to detect document forgery, serial fraud, synthetic identities, account takeovers, money laundering, and other evolving risks that threaten financial institutions. 

For more information go to: https://resistant.ai/