Global analytics leaders SAS has extended its 20-year partnership with US-based financial crimes and data consulting firm Zencos to meet the growing demand for digitally enabled anti-money laundering (AML) technology in Australia.
As part of the years-long partnership, SAS and Zencos will deliver an as-a-service AML cloud solution that saves organisations significant time and costs on financial fraud and crime management and scale processes to future-proof operations.
The cloud-based, fully managed AML solution increases the efficiency and effectiveness of investigators, prioritising high-value risks and recognising potential false positives. It also provides relevant behavioural and profile analysis for customers and third parties, as well as auto-population of regulatory reports.
Dermot McCutcheon, SAS director of alliances & channels, ANZ, said the partnership with Zencos allows the company to offer more businesses its technology as smaller-scale providers typically do not face legacy technology or scale challenges like its larger, global peers.
“We are really proud to be working with Zencos in the local market and see strong opportunity to grow this partnership,” McCutcheon added.
Zencos chief operating officer Fritz Lehman, a 33-year SAS veteran, said the partnership makes the technology accessible to more Australian businesses through cost-effective cloud-based deployments.
“We are passionate and excited about what SAS technology enables us to do for our customers, allowing us to be innovative, agile, and think outside the box to solve business and risk challenges,” Lehman continued.
He added that Zencos plans to get a local team and expand its customer focus to all regulated industries that face fraud challenges. It also wants to ensure that the technology is accessible, affordable, and adaptable.
More organisations have started storing data on the cloud since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the recent increase in cloud adoption has led to the rise of cyberattacks targeting cloud data, according to the 2021 Thales Global Cloud Security Study.
The report found that a quarter of Australian (26%) and New Zealand (26%) businesses stored sensitive data in the cloud in the last year, while about half of respondents in Australia (51%) and New Zealand (43%) reported a cloud breach during the same period.
Brian Grant, ANZ director at Thales, warned that it is no longer “if a cyberattack occurs, but “when” – highlighting the importance of a robust security strategy.
“A robust security strategy is essential to ensuring data and business operations remain secure. With nearly every business reliant on the cloud to some extent, it is vital that security teams have the ability to discover, protect, and maintain control of their data,” Grant said in a previous statement.
