BB&T fends off money launderers with SAS®

Bank selects SAS® Anti-Money Laundering to safeguard company integrity

CARY, N.C.  (Nov. 18, 2003)  –  SAS, the leader in business intelligence, announced today that BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT), the 11th largest financial holding company in the U.S., has selected SAS to reinforce its anti-money laundering program. Seeking to mitigate and manage risks associated with noncompliance, BB&T will be using SAS® Anti-Money Laundering to help adhere to the regulations of the USA PATRIOT Act and extend the superior detection technology to track fraud.

"BB&T’s reputation is built on the belief of doing business with unwavering integrity. We take pride in being rated as one of the country’s safest and soundest financial institutions," said Phil Koonce, manager of operational risk at BB&T. "It is clear SAS supports that sentiment with their rock-solid reputation and financial stability, as well as a commitment to its customers – demonstrated through its high investment (25 percent of total revenues) in research and development."

As an existing SAS customer, BB&T was familiar with the reliable results SAS software provides; the bank has been a satisfied SAS customer since 1991. SAS’ reputation and financial stability fueled BB&T’s decision to select SAS’ anti-money laundering solution. BB&T was also influenced by the value offered by the solution and the renowned SAS IT support. The bank is looking to extend the framework of the solution to address other business issues throughout the enterprise, such as fraud, risk management and marketing initiatives. The enterprisewide SAS solution ensures a comprehensive view of each customer by tracking transactions across all products, channels and lines of business.

"Built on SAS’ leading analytic and data management technology, SAS delivers an AML solution that is top of the line," said Koonce. "After evaluating other vendor offerings, we chose SAS because of the solution’s functionality, compatibility and the ability to customize the technical architecture."

The highly scalable detection engine within SAS Anti-Money Laundering provides superior detection functionality to enable reporting of potential criminal financial activities efficiently across the entire organization. The transaction monitoring and analysis process within the SAS solution leverages easily refined detection measures and logic to report exceptions more accurately throughout the enterprise. The predictive models from SAS empower BB&T to comprehend and examine suspicious patterns within customer transactions – an essential capability for the bank’s anti-money laundering effort.

"SAS has been helping the financial services industry with their specific business needs for more than a quarter-century," said Dr. Jim Goodnight, president and CEO of SAS. "Growing our relationship with leading institutions like BB&T is the latest chapter of our continuing effort for meeting these specific industry needs."

About BB&T

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) operates more than 1,400 banking offices in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Indiana and Washington, D.C. With $90.4 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, BB&T Corp. is the 11th largest financial holding company in the U.S. BB&T was named this year to the Forbes Platinum 400 list of America’s "Best Big Companies" for the fourth year in a row. BB&T and its subsidiaries offer full-service commercial and retail banking and additional financial services such as insurance, investments, retail brokerage, corporate finance, international banking, leasing and trust. More information is available at www.BBandT.com.

About SAS

Back to Recent SAS Press Releases

Copyright © SAS Institute Inc. All Rights Reserved.