HSBC partners with AI startup to combat money laundering

By Anna Irrera NEW YORK – HSBC Holdings Plc has partnered with Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence startup Ayasdi Inc to automate some of its compliance processes in a bid to become more efficient. The banking group is implementing the company's AI technology to automate anti money-laundering investigations that have traditionally been conducted by thousands of humans, the bank's Chief Operating Officer Andy Maguire said in an interview last week. The vast majority of anti money-laundering investigations at banks do not find suspicious activity, resulting in a waste of resources, according to the startup. In a pilot of Ayasdi's technology, HSBC saw the number of investigations drop by 20 percent without reducing the number of cases referred for more scrutiny, according to the startup. "It's a win-win," Maguire said.