Client
Global financial and insurance
services firm
Industry
Banking
Primary goal
AML remediation
Technologies
Managed services and intelligent automation
Make AML compliant
Financial crimes compliance is becoming increasingly complex, as new payment channels and digital assets increase the speed and sophistication of money laundering risks. For a global financial and insurance company, a sizable anti-money laundering (AML) case backlog across multiple workstreams had led to inefficiencies, higher costs, and increased compliance risks.
This case study shows how KPMG worked with the firm to streamline its AML operations through automation capabilities, advanced analytics, and flexible delivery models to strengthen compliance quality with a focus on transaction monitoring, alert investigations, and regulatory reporting.
Automate
AML
Streamline detection and investigations
Alert
investigation
Prioritize and resolve alerts more efficiently
AI-enabled services
Strengthen compliance operations
Measurable
results
Reduce average handling times and operating costs
Client transformation journey
- Before
- During
- After
Case backlogs risking AML non-compliance
A global finance and insurance firm was managing a sizable anti-money laundering case backlog across multiple workstreams, including rules-based transaction monitoring alerts, fraud group escalations, and production orders from law enforcement. Because of the backlog, the firm risked falling outside of regulatory imposed milestones, including an August 2025 regulator-imposed deadline for aged case completion.
If unresolved, these issues could affect case adjudication timeliness, consistency of suspicious transaction report (STR) recommendations, and examination readiness. The firm’s AML operations team turned to KPMG’s managed services offering that combines expert oversight with automation to assist with detection, streamline investigations, and sustain regulatory confidence.
Transforming AML services with an automated approach
KPMG was tasked with completing the firm’s cases from end-to-end, identifying if the reasonable grounds to suspect (RGS) threshold was being met, and preparing STR packages where warranted. KPMG implemented its managed services delivery model to clear the case backlog while supporting operational process improvements. They worked with the firm’s AML operations team to manage onboarding and system access provisioning, trained them to align the firm’s risk appetite, and executed across the aged case population.
In total, KPMG completed more than 3,000 cases between May 2024 and September 2025, which included transaction monitoring alerts, fraud escalations, and production orders. The team prepared case recommendations for final disposition, including STR recommendations where the RGS threshold was met. They also supported STR data sourcing and data entry, STR validations within the F2R FINTRAC portal, and case quality assurance.
Along with intelligent automation capabilities, KPMG provided ongoing support for AML process and procedure enhancements, including recommendations related to review periods, quality review methodology, and narrative standardization. By identifying operational improvement opportunities, KPMG helped the firm’s AML operations team reduce bottlenecks, improve quality feedback, standardize analyst outputs, and increase consistency in case dispositions.
Meeting operational risk with confidence
By focusing on backlog completion, KPMG helped the firm assess risk in a timelier manner, closing the gap of potential operational risk and, ultimately, meet their obligations to the regulator. While the backlog was successfully remediated before the required 2025 deadline, the AML operations team also strengthened their target operating model for future AML case review and quality assurance.
KPMG imparted key learnings, such as helping the firm centralize request for information operations, create a formal quality assurance and quality control methodology, standardize review periods, and create job aids around narrative guidance for transaction typologies as well as their case management system. Recognizing that technology alone would not ensure success, KPMG embedded organizational change management throughout the program—working with leadership to align stakeholders, build user readiness, and drive adoption across the organization.
How we make the difference
KPMG offers a modern AML model for swift upgrades supported by skilled professionals, advanced automated solutions and AI-powered processes, focusing on transaction monitoring, alert investigations, and regulatory reporting. We made the difference by building an AML operations team that supports growth, resilience, and insight- today and into the future.
Connect with KPMG to explore how modern AML systems can unlock value across your organization.
KPMG. Make the Difference.
