EY Financial Crime Crypto Center of Excellence

Digital assets innovation meets real-world financial crime expertise 

Digital assets are reshaping financial services and creating new FinCrime risks. Criminals are operating at machine speed, exploiting new payment rails, powered by AI. Crypto native firms face pressure to scale sustainably while protecting customer data, managing third party threats, and navigating the volatility of full market cycles. Traditional finance (TradFi) institutions are often entering the digital asset ecosystem for the first time and must understand the novel risks of emerging technologies and adapt their existing operations, often while competing for specialized talent and expanding their risk capabilities to meet new growth opportunities. 

By combining the strength of our consulting, technology and operational capabilities through managed services, we are helping organizations mitigate risk and tackle the emerging FinCrime threats posed by digital assets.

Crypto natives 

Rapid innovation drives the crypto ecosystem, pushing the envelope with new offerings and new technology, often outpacing risk and compliance intended to protect both the organization and their clients. To grow sustainably, firms must embed sound governance and operational discipline into their FinCrime risk management programs.

TradFis 

TradFis have strong governance and controls and are well-versed in know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) controls, but digital asset adoption requires new capabilities in enhanced due diligence, blockchain monitoring, and investigations. This means transforming existing controls to support new capabilities and adapting to the new landscape of how FinCrime manifests within digital assets.

Risks manifest differently depending on the digital asset offering but common themes prevail 

Is your institution vulnerable to digital asset financial crime risks? Are your controls compliant with regulatory expectations? 

The EY FinCrime Crypto CoE delivers consulting and managed services for digital asset clients

Within our global financial crimes service footprint, the EY FinCrime Crypto CoE works with the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges through existing EY delivery centers in India, Spain and the US to support their need for speed, scale and cost optimization. We work with clients to:

Increase operational elasticity 

Provide skilled FinCrime resources with crypto industry focus to support institutions’ need for scale through our global delivery centers.

• On-chain and off-chain AML Investigations, L1/L2 support from alert to suspicious activity report (SAR)
• Enhanced due diligence (EDD), including complex support for corporate and institutional clientele
• Name screening, on-chain sanctions investigation support, delayed-attribution alert management

Promote effective compliance 

Collaborate with clients to mature their compliance programs, governance structures and systems, enabling sustainable growth. 

• Offer regulatory response and gap assessment services
• Develop and enhance policies and procedures
• Conduct coverage and risk assessments
• Design operating models and quality control programs
• Provide program design and transformation services to support clients’ maturity and scaling efforts

Optimize technology

Leverage tools and technology to automate processes and drive quality improvement across compliance operations. 

• Utilize advanced analytics and modeling for optimization in detection typologies
• Enhance customer risk scoring and screening processes
• Support strategic implementation of AI to improve process efficiency
• Aim to enhance the quality of outcomes for clients