MUST SPONSOR BANKS TRAIN THEIR FINTECH'S COMPLIANCE DEPARTMENTS IN AML/CFT, TO INSURE BANKING BEST PRACTICES?

Just how far should sponsor banks go, when assisting their fintech clients? Given many fintechs have now and unseasoned compliance departments, and the companies themselves are generally focused upon their own business success, should not their sponsor banks take the initiative, to raise the level of fintech compliance effectiveness to the Banking Best Practices plateau? After all, regulatory agencies will come down on them hard if they find inadequate fintech AML results in laundering of the proceeds of crime through the sponsor bank as a failure of oversight.

Additionally, as one of the steps sponsor banks can do, in advance, to potentially mitigate regulatory fines and civil penalties is to demonstrate that it was operating such a program, and that an ineffective fintech compliance department had literally signed off on semi-annual training conducted by a sponsor bank compliance team. Records that such a program had been complete, and was being conducted semi-annually, might just serve to eliminate the imposition of a substantial fine by a regulator.

Therefore, even if there is pushback from your fintech clients, making your training mandatory twice a year is not only a good risk management tool, but I could save you money should things so south with their accounts at your bank, and regulators step in to impose civil penalties;Think about it.