Sovereign Bank Taps SAS Anti-Money-Laundering Software

Sovereign Bancorp Inc. has revealed plans to use compliance software from SAS Institute Inc. to monitor transactions for money-laundering or other suspicious activity.

Sovereign, with $60 billion in assets, selected SAS on the strength of its roster of financial-services industry customers, according to an SAS statement.

Banks are required to comply with a host of regulations designed to deter money laundering and terrorist financing, including screening customers against government-supplied terrorist lists and reporting suspicious activity to law-enforcement and regulatory authorities.

Software from companies such as Mantas, SAS, and Searchspace uses pattern-recognition and data-management techniques to scan quantities of data and flag potentially fraudulent transactions.