How do you benchmark and compare your SWIFT sanctions screening practices with your peers and competitors?

1 Why benchmark and compare?

Benchmarking and comparing your SWIFT sanctions screening practices can help you identify gaps, strengths, and areas for improvement in your processes, systems, and policies. By measuring and analyzing your screening performance against industry standards, best practices, and regulatory expectations, you can gain insights into how you can optimize your screening efficiency, accuracy, and coverage. Moreover, benchmarking and comparing can help you demonstrate your compliance efforts to regulators, auditors, and stakeholders, and enhance your reputation and trust in the market.

2 What to benchmark and compare?

When benchmarking and comparing your SWIFT sanctions screening practices, there are several dimensions to consider, such as screening scope, quality, efficiency, and compliance. You should assess how comprehensive your screening coverage is, how accurate and reliable your screening process is, how quickly and cost-effectively you can screen, and if your policies and procedures are compliant with applicable sanctions regulations. Additionally, you should ensure that your data is up-to-date, complete, and consistent; handle false positives, false negatives, and alerts; verify and document your screening results; automate and streamline your workflow; measure and monitor performance; align with industry standards; and manage and mitigate risks.

3 How to benchmark and compare?

Benchmarking and comparing your SWIFT sanctions screening practices can be done in various ways, depending on the availability and accessibility of data, tools, and standards. Internal benchmarking involves comparing your screening practices across different business units, functions, or regions within your organization to identify internal inconsistencies, inefficiencies, or gaps. External benchmarking is used to compare your screening practices with those of your peers, competitors, or industry leaders in the market. Standard benchmarking looks at established standards, guidelines, or benchmarks in the industry or by the regulators to assess compliance with expected or required screening criteria, rules, or metrics. All of these methods can help you promote best practices and harmonization across your organization, understand how you perform relative to others in terms of screening scope, quality, efficiency, and compliance, and identify areas where you need to improve or adjust your screening processes.

4 What are the benefits of benchmarking and comparing?

Benchmarking and comparing your SWIFT sanctions screening practices can bring several benefits to your organization, such as improving your screening performance and compliance, enhancing your competitive advantage and reputation, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. By measuring and analyzing your screening performance against industry standards, best practices, and regulatory expectations, you can gain a competitive edge and demonstrate your compliance efforts to regulators, auditors, and stakeholders. Furthermore, by benchmarking and comparing your screening practices regularly and systematically, you can identify and address gaps, strengths, and areas for improvement. This can help reduce errors, costs, and risks while encouraging staff to learn from others, adopt best practices, and seek new ways to optimize your screening processes.

5 What are the challenges of benchmarking and comparing?

Benchmarking and comparing your SWIFT sanctions screening practices can present some challenges or limitations, such as difficulty obtaining reliable, comparable, and timely data, which may vary in format, granularity, or quality. Additionally, finding suitable tools or platforms to benchmark and compare your screening practices can be difficult if they are costly, complex, or incompatible. Furthermore, accessing or applying the relevant standards, guidelines, or benchmarks to benchmark and compare your screening practices can be challenging if the standards are vague, outdated, or inconsistent. Moreover, the standards may not reflect your specific context, needs, or objectives.