World’s leading experts to debate the role of information in the fight against economic crime

SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, will join over a thousand of the world’s most respected experts on economic crime at the 32^nd International Symposium on Economic Crime from Tuesday 2 September to Sunday 7 September at the University of Cambridge.  Keynote speakers include newly appointed Attorney General Jeremy Wright and SFO Director David Green who will be joined by speakers from the EC Anti-Fraud Office, Europol and NATO.

On Friday, 5 September David Porter, Head of Fraud Strategy at SAS UK & Ireland, will convene a think tank titled “The Impact of Big Data Analytics on Economic Crime”. The session will discuss the impact and progressively important role of data analytics in the pursuit of economic criminals. Additionally, the group will debate topics including:

• whether anti-money laundering regulations are becoming too onerous and how technology can assist in spotting organised crime groups;
• how the ability to mine and analyse massive amounts of data to identify or predict economic crime may be outpacing data protection laws;
• Whether the financial and public sectors are attracting people with the right skills to cope with the shift to online economic crime.

“With the fingerprint of today’s serious financial crimes being mostly digital, data scientists are rapidly replacing detectives in the hunt for fraudsters. Criminals are early adopters of new technology, using increasingly sophisticated techniques to move money across multiple accounts and markets making it difficult to track,” said Porter. “Regulation continues to evolve but that is only one edge of the sword. To complete their arsenal, governments and fraud departments must use advanced analytics to uncover answers from a hugely complex pattern of transactions, behaviours and events to not only identify economic crime, but also understand the risk in order to put preventative measures in place.”

The symposium aims to foster meaningful collaboration between the public and private sectors and brings together legislators, diplomats, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges and those involved in regulation and compliance from over 90 different countries.

Professor Barry Rider (OBE), founder of the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, commented: “Governments, international agencies and the private sector must join forces to understand, share and protect information if we are to stem the tide of financial crimes. Tools and procedures are required to effectively identify, track and prosecute economic crimes and the symposium brings together some of the leading minds in the field and offers a forum to share expertise and practical knowledge from around the world.”

In March 2014 SAS opened a dedicated research and development (R&D) centre in Scotland,positioning SAS as an international centre of excellence for developing solutions to tackle fraud and bolster security. This supports the increasing demand for big data analytics solutions that have become critical across industries such as public security and financial services to support better decision-making, prevent fraud and mitigate risk.