Compliance Watch Helps Westpac NZ Keep Up with New Regs

Westpac New Zealand (Auckland) has recently gone live with London-based Misys' Midas Compliance Watch. Responding to the need for more stringent anti-money laundering processes, the financial institution chose the Compliance Watch solution to deal with a host of stricter regulations that have been rolled out recently, according to Peter Thomas, head of international operations, WestPac NZ.

"As a result of legislation changes in New Zealand, and Westpac's desire to be at the forefront of the suppression of terrorist financing, it was agreed in May 2003 that we needed to invest in an appropriate technology solution to protect the bank and its customers," says Thomas.

Additionally, the Compliance Watch tool is an exact match to the bank's processing requirements, Thomas adds. "Given that Westpac New Zealand uses the Midas application for back-office processing of all financial markets transactions and international payments, the Compliance Watch product was the ideal fit to our business need," he explains.

Compliance Watch will help the bank to screen all financial messages for individuals, companies or organizations appearing on published lists of known or suspected criminals and terrorists.