Future-Proofing Compliance for a Community-Owned Bank in Australia
A Community-Owned Bank in Australia
Focused on serving regional and rural communities, this progressive Australian bank has built a reputation around trust, accessibility, and customer-centric services. As digital services expanded including real-time payments and online onboarding, the bank sought a future-ready compliance solution that could tackle complex financial crime risks while aligning with AUSTRAC’s evolving regulatory expectations.
The bank faced several key challenges while scaling its compliance operations:
- Regulatory Readiness: Aligning with AUSTRAC’s AML/CTF Act and preparing for future Tranche 2 reforms.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Ensuring rapid detection across digital banking and RTP rails.
- Scenario Onboarding: Deploying high-coverage AML and fraud scenarios tailored to local risks.
- Data Availability: Simulating transaction flows in the absence of full production data during testing.
- Time-to-Launch: Meeting aggressive implementation deadlines driven by regulatory timelines.
- Cross-Team Coordination: Managing multiple stakeholders, including compliance, technology, and third-party auditors.
A Scalable, AI-Powered Compliance Platform Tailored for Australian Risk Conditions
The bank deployed Tookitaki’s FinCense on AWS as the core of its compliance operations. This enabled flexible deployment, scalable infrastructure, and real-time financial crime detection aligned to Australian regulations.
High-Level Architecture
- AWS Infrastructure: Tookitaki’s FinCense was deployed on AWS, ensuring reliability, scalability, and adherence to local regulatory data standards.
- Modular Scenario Deployment: Pre-built AML and fraud typologies from the AFC Ecosystem were rapidly onboarded to meet AU-specific red flags and risk indicators.
Technical Components
Amazon EC2 Systems Manager
- Enabled secure infrastructure automation for FinCense deployment.
- Supported patch management, audit readiness, and environment configuration across teams.
Amazon RDS
- Hosted the FinCense compliance database in a resilient, multi-zone setup.
- Powered high-speed ingestion and analytics across customer, transaction, and behavioural data.
- Supported load balancing and read scalability during peak transaction monitoring windows.
Implementation Approach
The implementation followed Tookitaki’s fast-track playbook with AWS best practices:
- Workshops & Knowledge Transfer: Collaborative scenario design and stakeholder alignment.
- Reusable Accelerators: Deployment of ETL scripts and synthetic test data to simulate red-flag behaviour.
- Governance Framework: Joint review boards ensured alignment across compliance, tech, and audit.
- Agile Delivery Model: Tookitaki’s dedicated implementation team delivered on a rolling, milestone-based timeline ensuring minimal disruption and on-time go-live.
The Results
1. 50% Faster Go-Live
Accelerated deployment of AML and fraud detection scenarios tailored to Australian use cases.
2. ~70% Reduction in Manual Effort
Threshold tuning, data mapping, and test case validation were streamlined through Tookitaki’s AI-assisted configuration tools.
3. Comprehensive Coverage
Over 30 scenarios deployed covering high-risk areas, including real-time payments, digital onboarding, account takeovers, mule networks, and regional remittance flows.
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