It is often the case that as the economy tightens, so do Marketing budgets, and with very few markets seeing signs of green shoots (or even roots) of recovery, the pressure to achieve continued growth is forcing marketers to be even more creative in their approach. The need to deliver more for less is stronger than ever. According to Jones, the ‘Caped Crusader’ provides a good example of the best approach.

“My boyhood memory of comics is that unlike other heroes, Batman’s not imbued with super powers,” says Jones, with a smile. “He achieves his success through a willingness to tackle problems himself, using a range of high-tech weapons from his utility belt, supported by a level of fitness which is truly exceptional.”

This combination leads Jones to identify three parallels for today’s marketers:

• Get fit (for purpose) as possible – “The most important starting point is to ensure all your data is accurate and actionable. It’s impossible to build an effective prospect or customer segmentation without data which is free from inaccuracies, inconsistencies, or is simply missing,” notes Jones. “Better data means better insight, and the ability to get a Single View across all your data allows for finely targeted messaging of tailored offers to prospects, and powerful cross-, link- or up-sell opportunities for customers through leveraging of purchasing histories.”

• Embrace cutting-edge technology – “There are a wealth of software tools available to marketing departments, from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to full Marketing Management Systems (MMS),” continues Jones. “The increasing use of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook for commercial messaging provides yet another channel to be exploited by marketers, and another data resource which needs to be harnessed for profiling.  Even if the systems themselves are incompatible, the source data that underpins them can be combined, profiled and standardized for effective campaign management.”

• Reduce outsourcing and retain control – “Many marketing departments rely upon external agencies to manage, cleanse and improve their data prior to campaign building campaign target lists. There is an inevitable delay involved in turning around the segment data which can significantly affect the flexibility of an organization to respond to changes in the marketplace or unexpected events,” says Jones. “Even when the data is returned it often still isn’t altogether fit-for-purpose as a result of poor de-duplication or loosely-configured match rules. Products like our dn:Director provide in-house teams of marketers or data analysts to quickly and easily manage and improve the quality of their underlying data, delivering a better Single View of Customer from their CRM, greater accuracy of insight and campaign ROI analysis from the MMS, and the ability to respond at speed to market demands.”

With all this talk of fit-for-purpose data, does Datanomic’s Marketing Director worry about seen as a nerd, rather than a marketer?

“Not a bit,” replies Jones. “Data isn’t the sole domain of the IT team.  Every marketer understands the value of actionable campaign data, as they’re the ones who experience the pain if mail is returned, email blasts are bounced, promotions fail or any other damage hits the campaign because of poor quality data.  There’s nothing nerdy about ensuring good campaign ROI.”

And as for Batman?

“Datanomic is just helping them to ensure the weapons in their utility belt are completely fit-for-purpose.  With our help they just have to roll up their sleeves (or capes if they prefer) and get stuck in,” smiles Jones.

UK and European insurance companies are being strongly urged to review their global policies to ensure they do not breach legislation created by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and risk incurring multi-million dollar penalties, according to fit-for-purpose data and compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd. Whilst insurers are used to dealing with industry regulations intended to improve business practices, many underestimate or do not fully understand the global reach of OFAC sanctions. OFAC is holding insurers accountable on a strict liability basis for both their own trading practices, as well as their customers’ trading practices, if either violates sanction and embargo rules.

However remote the link, if a policy is deemed to facilitate a prohibited transaction, it violates the sanctions control. A policy that has no explicit connection to any sanctioned country, entity or individual, but provides blanket geographic coverage – for example to an airline whose routes includes stops in Cuba, or a hotel chain that has a property in Iran - could still present a risk to the insurance company. To comply with US sanctions requirements, insurers must make sure that policies that otherwise provide worldwide coverage contain explicit exclusions for proscribed beneficiaries or prohibited transactions. OFAC notes that such exclusions are of particular importance in treaty reinsurance, where the reinsurer does not control the selection of individual risks that will be ceded.

“Every single insurer should have a compliance officer who understands the full breadth and reach of OFAC’s regulations,” said Dr Jonathan Pell, CEO of Datanomic. “Understanding how your company potentially interacts with these requirements is paramount. A good compliance program will include a formal written policy as well as regular screening against the current OFAC list. Having a strong compliance program in place not only helps avoid violations, but it can also play a major role in helping to mitigate the consequences should a breach occur. In past enforcement actions, OFAC has viewed the strength of a company’s commitment to compliance as a major factor in assessing the appropriate severity of a penalty. It’s time for all insurers to be asking themselves if their compliance program can withstand OFAC’s scrutiny.”

To address these issues, Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources. Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk. Datanomic is offering a free Data Assessment Workshop for insurers which provides an in-depth analysis of your client data to identify potential weaknesses in meeting and fulfilling compliance requirements. More information about the Data Assessment Workshop can be found at:
http://www.datanomic.com/screening-data-assessment/

About Datanomic
Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering. www.datanomic.com

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

The majority of UK insurance companies remain confused about their sanctions screening responsibilities, are largely ignorant of their obligations under the Terrorism Order, and have an over reliance on small firms to screen against Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) lists, according to fit-for-purpose data and compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd.  The findings are confirmed in the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) latest report “Financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions”, produced by the FSA’s Financial Crime and Intelligence Division (FCID).

Many insurance firms wrongly believe there is little or no risk of a sanctions breach in their customer base, while some companies even believe UK financial sanctions do not apply to the insurance industry and view themselves as exempt from the UK financial sanctions regime.

“There is a widening gap between the insurance sector and the rest of the financial services industry in terms of education and understanding of their sanctions screening responsibilities,” said Simon Pearson, Director of Compliance Screening at Datanomic Ltd. “Insurance is trailing the rest of the financial services market in its practical understanding and implementation of exactly how the Terrorism Order and other legislation prohibits the provision of insurance services to a named individual or entity on a sanctions list. The FSA has given the industry plenty of warning to get its house in order. We anticipate that it will start to impose heavy financial penalties on both insurance companies and individual senior management who breach financial sanctions in the same way that it has come down hard on the banking industry.”

Worryingly, many major insurance companies are relying on small firms to screen against the HMT and other global sanctions lists, however, very few small firms do any screening at all.

“Unfortunately, the trend in the insurance sector, particularly among the major insurance companies, is to rely on small firms or other authorised organisations to carry out screening against the HMT list,” added Pearson. “However, approximately three quarters of small firms surveyed by the FSA do not screen the HMT list or other commercial sanctions lists at all. In fact, they show very low levels of awareness of the financial services regime in general. This practice by both the major insurance firms and small companies alike is irresponsible, in breach of legal obligations under both industry regulations and government legislation, and is placing companies at risk.”

To address these issues, Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk.  

A full copy of the FSA report on financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions is available for download at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/Sanctions%20Final%20Report.pdf.

More information about Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software is available at http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/sanctions-pep-screening/

Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk.  

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

UK financial services firms are sitting on compliance time bombs with regards to the UK financial sanctions regime, despite recent highly publicised fines and penalties, according to fit-for-purpose data and compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd.  The findings are confirmed in the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) latest report “Financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions”, produced by the FSA’s Financial Crime and Intelligence Division (FCID).

Many companies still don’t understand the difference between simple anti-money laundering (AML) measures and screening against Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) list of sanctioned individuals and entities. The most common misconceptions amongst financial services firms include:

• Firms believing they are somehow exempt from the financial services regime because they only process low value transactions.
• Firms believing that individuals and entities on the HMT list were all based overseas.
• Small firms believing financial sanctions screening is unnecessary because they do not hold client money, make payments or because they deal in products which they assess as low risk for financial crime.
• Failing to understand the difference between financial sanctions targets and politically exposed persons (PEPs).
• Belief that insurance is a no or low risk area for sanctions or that UK financial sanctions do not apply to insurance.
• Belief that the funds of sanctioned individuals cannot be frozen because it may constitute ‘tipping off’. (Most listed individuals and entities are aware they are on the HMT list, which is publically available).
• Misconception, especially amongst small firms, that checks carried out for AML purposes will cover sanctions checks.
• Belief that financial sanctions is a form of FSA enforcement action, rather than a regime that is implemented, administered and enforced by the HMT.
• General lack of understanding and confusion relating to obligations under the Terrorism Order, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and other mandatory legislation.

“Even large organisations are misguided when it comes to financial sanctions screening with many firms assuming that their residual risk of dealing with a listed entity or individual is low,” said Simon Pearson, Director of Compliance Screening at Datanomic Ltd. “Firms are also failing to understand how their screening systems are generating matches in the first place. This is resulting in false positives, and more worryingly, false negatives, which are placing a huge burden on compliance departments that are struggling to cope. These misconceptions and the lack of understanding around screening technologies are exposing firms to enormous business and compliance risk.”

To address these issues, Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk.  

A full copy of the FSA report on financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions is available for download at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/Sanctions%20Final%20Report.pdf.

More information about Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software is available at http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/sanctions-pep-screening/

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Cambridge, UK, [15 June 2009] - A leading European provider of fit-for-purpose Data Quality solutions, Datanomic, today announced its positioning by Gartner, Inc., in the “Visionaries” quadrant of the “Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools.”[i]

In the report, which includes a full assessment of fourteen international providers of data quality solutions based on completeness of vision and ability to execute, Gartner defines “Visionaries” as organisations that “demonstrate a strong understanding of current and future market trends and directions, such as the importance of ongoing monitoring of data quality, engagement of business subject matter experts and delivery of data quality services. They exhibit capabilities aligned with these trends, but may lack the market presence, brand recognition, customer base and resources of larger vendors.”

“We are delighted to have been acknowledged as a visionary in this report,” said Dr Jonathan Pell, CEO, Datanomic. “We believe it recognises the innovation and investment we’ve made as a company in our software and in our increasing penetration and adoption into international markets. The release of our latest version of dn:Director this summer will be testament to our continued commitment to providing the most innovative and flexible data quality and integration solutions.”

“The market for data quality tools is of moderate size (estimated at between $400 million and $500 million at the end of 2008), and during the next few years is expected to experience stronger growth than many other software markets.” Moreover, “much of the innovation continues to come from outside the US.” Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools, 2009.

Datanomic’s award-winning data quality solution, dn:Director, provides a single, unified platform that enables both business and IT personnel, such as data stewards, business analysts and owners of data, to identify and rectify compromised data which can place operations at risk. The latest version, dn:Director 7.2, due for release in July, features a role-based, tailorable user interface which builds upon the already fully integrated, end-to-end data quality software.

“Datanomic will continue to deliver innovative software and solutions that address the very real business challenges presented by poor quality and disjointed data. We will further enhance our market position by continuing both international expansion and vertical market growth through our rapidly expanding partner network,” said Pell.

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

 [i]Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools”, by Ted Friedman, Andreas Bitterer, June 2009.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Small UK financial services firms are still largely oblivious to their mandatory financial sanctions screening obligations, according to fit-for-purpose data and compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd. Some small companies are so unaware of the ‘financial sanctions regime’ that they think the phrase refers to financial penalties issued by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The findings are confirmed in the FSA’s latest report “Financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions”, produced by the FSA’s Financial Crime and Intelligence Division (FCID).

The following examples highlight some of the many misconceptions around the financial sanctions regime. Two thirds of small firms surveyed thought that customer due diligence was the same as Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) screening. Many small firms believe that sanctions screening is simply not applicable to them as they don’t hold client money, don’t make payments or because they deal in products which they believe are low risk for financial crime. Two thirds of small firms stated they had formal written policies and procedures in place for financial sanctions screening. However, FSA visits revealed that only half of firms actually had such polices in place. The discrepancy reflects their confusion between anti-money laundering checks and screening against the HMT list, with firms not understanding what their policy should contain. Of the small firms that were screening, not one had ever identified a target match, which also suggested to the Regulator they are not conducting comprehensive or effective screening.

“Small size does not give you a free pass when it comes to complying with legal or regulatory requirements,” said Simon Pearson, Director of Compliance Screening at Datanomic Ltd. “Many small firms are relying on rudimentary KYC (know your customer) checks at client take-on only, and have no provision for regular, ongoing monitoring of their customers against Government Sanctions lists, money laundering or terrorist financing databases. The FSA’s report concludes that the majority of small firms are exposed to significant business and compliance risk because they lack the systems and controls to carry out regular periodic screening.”

Only about a quarter of small firms surveyed screen their clients against HMT lists. Of these, only a small proportion screen all new customers. The remainder screen only certain customers if they have concerns about the client. However, rather than being based on a robust risk assessment, this judgement is generally based on misconceptions, such as the belief that no UK persons or entities are on the HMT list.

To address these issues, Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk.  

A full copy of the FSA report on financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions is available for download at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/Sanctions%20Final%20Report.pdf. A sanctions fact sheet for small firms is available at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/smallfirms/your_firm_type/financial/library/index.shtml

More information about Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software is available at http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/sanctions-pep-screening/

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering. www.datanomic.com

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Fit-for-purpose data and screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd, today announced that Screwfix, the UK’s largest direct and online supplier of trade tools, accessories and hardware products, has deployed Datanomic’s dn:Director software to help with its Customer Data and Insight activities.  Every day, Datanomic’s dn:Director helps the Screwfix customer data management team prepare coherent and consistent sets of customer data, enabling Screwfix to perform advanced segmentation and buying analysis to maximise the value of customer information over millions of transactions.  This approach has saved Screwfix a lot of time when dealing with data and helps make marketing investment money go further.

Established in 1979, Screwfix is a subsidiary of Kingfisher Plc. By combining trade prices and a massive range of leading brand name items, Screwfix provides in excess of 15,000 products to the trade and project DIYer’s. The company prides itself on its commitment to company care and support, and has a dedicated call centre employing 500 people as well as 145 trade counters nationwide.

“We’ve experienced dramatic growth, particularly over the last 10 years,” said Kevin Loader, Customer Data Manager for Screwfix. “We have accumulated high quality data on our customers and their buying habits and wanted to extend and enhance our marketing activities.  We want a joined up view of each customer so we can better control our catalogue mailings and outbound communications to ensure we are not duplicating effort or misdirecting information.  Because we are now doing business both online, as well as through hundreds of Trade Counters, we needed to review our communications strategy to ensure we have greater precision and focus. We interact with our customers in multiple ways, online, in person and by phone, so it’s imperative that we have both insight and understanding into their purchase history, preferred communications, buying patterns and requirements in order to provide a consistently high level of service. Datanomic’s dn:Director was the best data management tool to help us execute our Customer Data and Insight activities to achieve these objectives.”

Screwfix is using Datanomic’s dn:Director to perform advanced segmentation and buying analysis to establish the various types of customer journey from multiple sources, including web, call centre and Trade Counters, and maximise the value of this customer information.  Screwfix was previously using a third party external mailing house to send out its catalogues. On average, the company ships between five to six million catalogues a year, so customer insight is an important part of ensuring outbound communication is properly targeted, and represents a significant portion of the marketing budget.

“We began working with Datanomic in 2007 and we are delighted with what we have achieved,” added Kevin Loader. “Datanomic’s dn:Director is both easy to use and iterative - it saves us a lot of time when we are making selections for campaigns.  Datanomic has a sound understanding of customer/product data requirements and a proven track record in delivering successful projects, which were key factors in our selection decision and why dn:Director is a business critical application for us.”

Described by industry analysts as “arguably the most flexible data quality product”, Datanomic’s dn:Director provides a single, unified platform that enables non-IT personnel, such as data stewards, business analysts and owners of data, to identify and rectify the compromised data which place enterprise operations at risk. As a single product that encompasses profiling, analysis, transformation, cleansing and matching, dn:Director enables better understanding, improvement, protection and control of data quality for all types of information - asset, financial, customer, product, people and transactional.

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and retailing.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Fit-for-purpose data and compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd, today announced that it has been selected as a finalist in the coveted 2009 FSO Knowledge Xchange (FSOkx) Excellence Awards. The huge popularity of the company’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software within the Financial Sector has led to it being shortlisted as one of the top five leading organisations in the ‘Excellence in Risk Management and Compliance Systems’ category. The judges were particularly impressed with its customer benefits and interoperability.

FSOkx is a B2B media and research company, which focuses on all aspects of financial services worldwide and across the financial services spectrum. As the media observer and research house for the financial services sector, FSOkx’s panel of judges, comprised of thought leaders and visionaries from within the industry, recognise the best performers and true technology innovation.

“Recognition from the FSOkx Excellence Awards and its judging panel - which are designed to reward distinction, technological innovation, design and functionality - is yet another milestone for Datanomic and we are thrilled to be a finalist,” said Dr. Jonathan Pell, CEO of Datanomic. “Our dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that your business is protected from compliance risk.”

The market for Datanomic’s Sanctions & PEP Screening solution is expanding beyond the financial services sector to include law firms who require accurate, effective Sanctions & PEP Screening for regulatory compliance, as well as general industrial companies who are implementing ‘Enterprise Screening’- the systematic scrutiny of employees and internal contractors, as well as external partners, agents, third parties, and distributors. Datanomic believes that Enterprise Screening will become standard business practice for large organisations in all major vertical markets within three years. For more information, please visit: http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/sanctions-pep-screening/

Datanomic’s preparation for the very real and burgeoning market need to address enterprise screening across all market sectors has led to its recognition by the analyst community as a leading innovator in the category, further demonstrating the commitment to technological innovation and advancement that is recognised in the FSOkx shortlist. The award winners will be announced at the Annual FSOkx Summit Event to be held on June 4th in New York City at the Union League Club.

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering. www.datanomic.com

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Tackling underlying data quality issues is key to fraud prevention and reduction, lowering administration costs, and fulfillment of legal obligations for pension fund providers, according to Heirtrace, specialists in asset reunification, and Datanomic Ltd, specialists in fit for purpose data. Heirtrace estimates that approximately 10 percent of deferred pension member records in the UK are out of date. This incomplete and inaccurate data makes mortality screens and address checks virtually impossible and unreliable.

One percent of the population or 600,000 people die each year in the UK, yet UK pension funds are still paying in excess of £200 million per year to deceased pensioners. Maintaining pension fund data through regular cleaning and updating of the database and running mortality checks will have a direct impact on fraudulent payments or payments made in error.  Furthermore, the Pension Regulator’s recent consultation paper on Record Keeping goes much further than any other guidance on data quality. Maintaining accurate postcode information to enable future liability calculations, as well as fulfillment of legal obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 mean pension trustees and their appointed administrators have an implicit duty to ensure members are found and paid their pension on time.

“As the population becomes more mobile and changes jobs more often, individuals typically have multiple pensions throughout their lifetime,” said Danielle Higgins, Managing Director for Heirtrace. “The problem for pension fund providers and administrators is that people often forget to update their records when they move, and many people move abroad before retirement age. Simply paying for a tracing service without getting results or spending huge sums trying to locate deferred members is not the answer. Heirtrace and Datanomic are able to fill in the gaps of missing member data, whether it’s locating and verifying a current address, a missing postcode, a date of birth or full names. This not only allows specific mortality screening to be conducted, but also gives the administrator confidence to communicate with the member from that point forward.”

With success rates of 85 percent, Heirtrace is able to search for members living overseas as well as those in the UK. By partnering with Datanomic, specialists in data cleansing, data quality and data matching, Heirtrace is able to help large corporations and pension fund providers track and trace members, and better plan financially for their pension fund requirements.

“You must know your data, have a risk profile, understand the data flows and have clean member records,” said Jeremy Lovett Director of Alliances and Data Quality Integration for Datanomic Ltd. “These are the fundamental keys to addressing fraud reduction, overpayments, data protection obligations and accurate mortality screening. Most pension fund managers and pension trustees know they have a problem with the accuracy of their data, yet don’t know the size of the problem lurking in their database or how to go about addressing it.”

Datanomic and Heirtrace are offering a free QuickStats Workshop which provides an analysis of data sources to identify potential weaknesses in the data collection and data management processes, identify missing, erroneous or misallocated data, assess how complete and accurate the member data is within a pension fund, and advise on the best approach for remedying ‘dirty data’ and tracing ‘Lost’ or ‘Gone Away’ members.  More information about the QuickStats Workshop for pension providers can be found at: http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/unified-single-view/quickstats-workshop/

About Heirtrace

Heirtrace is a leader in providing pro-active search services to Lawyers, financial institutions and pension funds to reunite assets with owners/heirs. It also provides services to membership organisations, schools and universities. Its key strategy is to utilise individual intelligence and advanced technology to achieve an exceptionally high level of success for its customers.  www.heirtrace.co.uk

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering. www.datanomic.com

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

Clean, accurate and up-to-date customer data combined with sophisticated fuzzy matching algorithms are the fundamental keys to effective financial sanctions screening, according the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) latest report “Financial services firms’ approach to UK sanctions”, produced by the FSA’s Financial Crime and Intelligence Division. The report’s recommendations to ensure that firms’ data is fit-for-purpose for Sanctions screening closely mirror the functionality available to customers of Datanomic’s award-winning dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software, and underlines why dn:Director is now the solution of choice for the UK Financial Services sector.

 Some of the key challenges highlighted by the FSA report include:

•  ”Ensuring that customer data used for ongoing screening is kept up-to-date and correct.” (Page 25). Firms must ensure their client data is kept up-to-date and as complete as possible. Datanomic’s software identifies and eradicates problems with customer data that cause inaccuracy or even failure in Sanctions screening. dn:Director includes powerful data auditing, cleansing, restructuring, standardisation, validation and indexing capabilities to ensure firms’ customer data is fit for purpose prior to Sanctions screening.
• “Weaknesses from the difficulties of operating multiple legacy IT systems across the group.” (Page 8). dn:Director enables vast quantities of customer data from disparate systems to be integrated into a universal Sanctions screening platform. Some companies using Datanomic screen tens of millions of customers globally every 24 hours against Sanctions sources.
•  ”The inability to flag individuals or entities adequately on all of their systems meant that the risk of payments or services being provided to persons on the HMT list was not adequately mitigated in some parts of the business.” (Page 8). Datanomic’s dn:Director software includes sophisticated data mining and investigation capabilities to automatically discover customer data no matter where it resides in a database. dn:Director finds individuals and entities and systematically screens them against Sanctions lists no matter where they are hiding in the data.
• “Failure to review the rules of automated screening systems, or to set the calibration in accordance with the firm’s risk appetite.” (Page 25). dn:Director enables easy calibration and tuning of customer screening rules. The simple drill-down approach and clear user interface allows even non-technical users to monitor and adjust screening rules according to their company’s risk based approach. Likewise, it’s also easy for independent assessors to review and audit the company’s Sanctions screening implementation.
•  ”No, or insufficient management oversight of the day-to-day operation of systems and controls.” (Page 13). dn:Director’s dashboard allows executives and other stakeholders to monitor the day-to-day performance of their Sanctions screening processes.

“A complex IT infrastructure is not an excuse for poor systems and controls when it comes to ensuring compliance with the UK financial sanctions regime,” said Simon Pearson, Director of Compliance Screening at Datanomic Ltd. “The FSA report highlights some of the critical challenges and key functionality required in order to comply with current legislation. Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software delivers exceptional accuracy for proactive risk protection. Datanomic’s ‘Decision Intelligence’ minimises ‘false positives’ (potential matches requiring deeper manual assessment) which is a burdensome by-product of other automated screening solutions. Companies using Datanomic benefit not only from the industry’s highest accuracy thereby driving down cost of Compliance, but from complete case management, workflow, auditability and reporting in an enterprise Sanctions screening platform.”

Pearson adds, “As the FSA points out, the consequences of getting it wrong can be severe - ranging from fines to up to seven years’ imprisonment for individual MLROs. The consequences to firms themselves include compliance fines, brand and reputation damage, and business disruption due to corrective measures imposed by regulators.”

Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically screen their customers against Sanctions, PEP, money laundering, terrorist financing and other risk data sources.  Industry-leading accuracy and Datanomic’s unique ‘Decision Intelligence’ drive down compliance costs by reducing the burden of false positives. End-to-end data preparation, case management, workflow, auditability and reporting tools ensure that businesses are protected from compliance risk. 

A full copy of the FSA report on financial services firms’ approach to UK financial sanctions is available for download at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/Sanctions%20Final%20Report.pdf  More information about Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) Screening software is available at http://www.datanomic.com/solutions/sanctions-pep-screening/

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to delivering fit-for-purpose data and screening accuracy enables its growing list of blue chip clients around the world to achieve a rapid Return on Investment, by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information their businesses rely upon, and by discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering. www.datanomic.com

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: + 44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com