Nordic Banks Look to Machine Learning to Fill Compliance Roles: Report

The market for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance jobs may be on the rise in Nordic countries, but don't count on that trend continuing. Advances in technology could render many compliance roles at Nordea Bank and Danske Bank obsolete, Bloomberg reported Monday. While Helsinki-based Nordea Bank relies on hundreds of employees to help scrutinize billions of transactions for signs of criminal activity, the system is costly and inefficient, and one the lender hopes to move away from, Mikael Bjertrup, head of the bank's financial crime prevention unit, told the news outlet. The bank, which currently uses machine-learning algorithms to close approximately 20 percent of its suspicious transaction alerts, is seeking to increase that total to 80 percent--a shift that would scale back the number of compliance officers needed by the institution, according to the report. "We'll be fewer people in the future, but our defense will be better," Bjertrup told Bloomberg.