How are banks and payment firms managing their AI models for financial crime and compliance? That’s the question we put directly to a panel of experienced practitioners on our recent webinar with ACAMS.
My top five takeaways from a fascinating discussion are below - you canread the full summary article for the other ten.
“Good AI isn’t just a model. It’s a lifecycle with clear ownership. If you can't explain how your model is performing today and not six months ago, it's not good, no matter how sophisticated it is." Michael Morrison, CAMS, Compliance Product Technology Management, Wintrust Financial Corporation
"Work on building the internal capability to build understanding and encourage teams to work cross-disciplinary. Without that internal model literacy, it's very difficult to challenge the decisions and to detect any drift or adapt to regulatory change. We are facing unprecedented events that require quick adaptability...and fast adaptation has to be pre-empted by understanding and knowledge." Adrianna Fabijanska, Global Head Financial Crime Compliance Investment Banking, ING
"Governance often gives the impression that it slows things down. However, it also makes sure things are sustainable and manageable long term so you're not flying too close to the sun. For example, one typical piece of documentation to include is a clear purpose statement for the model: why are we doing it and what problem is it solving?" Michael Morrison, CAMS
"Modern risk management is shifting from predictive control to adaptive resilience. It’s no longer just about building better models. It’s about asking how quickly we can recognize when our assumptions are wrong. We need to align the technical language within the organization to make sure that when we say 'A,' we all mean 'A.' Building that internal capability will scale up your adaptability in this fast-paced environment." Adrianna Fabijanska
"Too often, institutions try to replicate what another institution did, or hire from their model governance team. What ends up happening is you're doing what was good for somebody else, not what's good for your organization. Take a step back, set your goals, get the board involved, and understand where you want to be in three to five years."Kyle Daddio, Partner at Risk Advisory Services at Grant Thornton
Product Deepdive: How Hawk Helps FIs to Manage AI Models
How can financial crime and compliance teams ensure they have the power to apply best practice to AI model lifecycle management?
Join our Product Deepdive on March 3 and see how our Analytics Studio solution helps banks and payment firms tackle model management challenges.
You'll see how Analytics Studio enables you to:
Apply financial crime expertise to your AI
Tailor models to your institutional data
Retrain existing models using production data
Analyze model metrics through automated dashboards
Extract embedded documentation for governance, audits, and examinations
👉 Register to see AI model management in action here
AI Model Governance
Reduce AI Costs with Analytics Studio
Is the cost of AI model management holding FIs back from keeping their financial crime and compliance programs up to date? In this video, Hawk’s Senior Product Marketing Manager, Erica Brackman, talks about the real costs of deploying AI for anti-financial crime and how Analytics Studio helps to keep those costs under control.
Hawk's Customer Risk Rating solution has been recognized as a Technology Standout in Celent's latest Customer Due Diligence / Customer Lifecycle Management report.
Why did Hawk stand out?
✅ Dynamic Risk Profiling: We enable FIs to incorporate any data point, including internal scores and behavioral indicators that update as screening hits or deviations occur, to reflect each customer’s unique risk profile dynamically.
✅ Highly Configurable: FIs can define custom thresholds and configure time- and trigger-based review cycles for individuals and organizations.
✅ Unified Intelligence: Celent praised Hawk’s ability to feed dynamic risk ratings into screening and transaction monitoring, while also noting the ease of model configuration and the platform's intuitive user experience.
"For too long, the financial sector has been held back by static, manual KYC processes siloed from ongoing behavior," said Wolfgang Berner, Chief Product Officer at Hawk. "The approach of 'snapshots in time' is no longer enough to defend against modern financial crime."
"Customer Risk Rating gives financial institutions the dynamic risk profiling they need to protect their organization."
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Is Your Fraud Prevention System Fit for Nacha’s Updates?
In less than 4 months, Nacha's updated ACH fraud rules come into effect. For many financial institutions, it means a complete rethink of your fraud monitoring approach. With March and June 2026 deadlines fast-approaching, now is the time to evaluate whether your fraud controls are fit for purpose. Read how to audit your stack here.
Hawk Appoints Former FATF Delegate & Regulatory Expert
Hawk is pleased to welcome Dr. Shlomit Wagman as a Strategic Advisor. Dr. Wagman is a world-renowned authority on financial crime, regulation, and AI with decades of high-level enforcement experience. She will support Hawk in bringing tech-forward strategies to an evolving regulatory landscape. Read the full announcement here.
Find out what our AML and fraud prevention technology, powered by explainable AI, can do for you:
