"PVB is the first in the country to comply with BSP circular 495, despite the deadline being extended to October 2007. This manifests PVB’s strong support for the Government’s efforts to curb illegal financial operations in the country," said Jun Balbido, President of the Philippine Veterans Bank, a private commercial bank whose shareholders are World War II veterans and their families.

PVB acquired the Anti-Money Laundering Solution from SAS, a leading software provider of business intelligence solutions and applications. SAS, chosen earlier this year by Waters Magazine as the best anti-money laundering solution provider, delivered the bank’s AML project on schedule, within only a few weeks.

"SAS was able to complete the project as scheduled and PVB is now the first bank in the country with a live AML monitoring system that complies with the standards set by the BSP," said Sonny Halili, Managing Director of SAS Philippines.

"The choice of SAS was the result of a comprehensive vendor review process. SAS’ reputation, track record, intelligence platform solution and financial stability were certainly factors in our decision. But what we appreciated most were the support and expertise provided by SAS, and the fact that aside from addressing our current AML requirements, the SAS solution already provides the foundation for systems for managing the bank’s other issues in fraud, risk management and customers," said Balbido.

SAS AML tracks transactions across all products, channels and lines of business to ensure a comprehensive view of each customer. Eventually, PVB plans to extend the framework of the solution to address other business issues, such as Basel II Compliance.

"SAS Anti-Money Laundering is one of several banking industry solutions that leverage on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. SAS strives to ensure our customers’ success through industry-focused business solutions and world-class expertise," said Halili.

The SAS AML is a sophisticated anti-money laundering solution that can take mountains of information from all the areas of the financial business, manage and refine that information, and turn it into usable knowledge that will efficiently and accurately help a business identify and classify dubious financial behavior. SAS also provides a global user group for its AML customers, enabling them to share best practices and knowledge as a community.