Thailand applies SAS technology to trace suspicious financial transactions

BANGKOK, January 15 (TNA) - Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) now applies SAS, a world-class technology used also by the US Federal Reserve (FED) in New York, to detect suspicious financial transactions in the country. AMLO Secretary-General Police Colonel Sihanart Prayoonrat told journalists on January 15 that AMLO and SAS (Thailand) Co., Ltd. have agreed to cooperate on applying the SAS technology to scrutinise financial transactions in the country to prevent and suppress money-laundering operations. Police Colonel Sihanart said SAS is an intelligent computerised IT grid being capable of detecting suspicious financial transactions more efficiently in a larger amount of input data. Police Colonel Sihanart pointed out that SAS would be able to scrutinise input data within 1-2 days, which is much faster than 1-2 weeks needed by the old system. The AMLO chief noted that SAS is well-recognised by the world financial sector and is being used by over 150 global financial institutes, including FED and the United Kingdom's Financial Management Office. According to the AMLO chief, his office has received reports on over 1.5 million suspicious financial transactions monthly, or 80 million since the year 2000, while the SAS technology could efficiently scrutinise financial transactions and show an alarming signal for suspicious ones. The AMLO chief revealed that the SAS technology is part of his office's three-year procurement projects funded by a total budget of 120 million baht. (TNA)