Data Processing Summary

Once financial intelligence data has been captured and stored in its raw form for evidentiary purposes, it is then "processed" and transformed in a data model optimised for analysis.

The "processing" involves:

• Data Transcoding - basically converting to standarded formats, e.g. XML, CSV, TSV into JSON.

• Data Restructuring - reorganising the data to allow for uniform analysis (e.g. aligning information reported in different ways and in different fields).

• Data Standardisation. E.g. standardising; USA, United States, U.S.A., U.S., United States of America, America into an ISO standard country code.

• Data Enrichment- which involves generating derived data elements on each report. Including;

  • Allocating unique identifiers (e.g. associating a report number to a specific report).
  • Geocoding address information (e.g. converting 18 ZeWood Avenue Murray Bridge SA 2553 into -35.13,139.24)
  • Converting dollar amounts into a base currency for analysis. (e.g. converting $100 USD into $150 AUD based on the exchange rate at the time of the transaction).
  • Calculation of derived party characteristics, based off the reported characteristics. E.g. ;
    • Allocation of Party Type (individual or business).
    • Allocation of a Gender (Male or Female for individuals).
  • Calculation of derived transation characteristics, based off the reported characteristics. E.g. ;
    • Allocation of report direction (into or out of the base country) based on the institution flow.
    • Allocation of a source/destination country based on the customer or account institution details.
  • Converting reference codes to text display values (i.e. reporterId : 123 converted to ABC Bank).

• Summarisation / Resolution of Parties- for automated monitoring systems to identify profiles of higher risk activity reported parties need to be resolved into consolidated parties (which attempt to represent "real world parties").

• Transaction, Party and Network Monitoring- which is the automated analysis of activity for known high risk activity as well as unusual activity (based on both raw reported data and derived/enhanced data).

Comparison of Raw and Enhanced Transaction Reports

The below two tabs provide an example of the same report in its raw and enhanced forms. This example higlights the types of data processing performed on reported data by FIUs, including:

• Transcoding - in this exampe the raw data, collected as XML, is transcoded into JSON.
• Restructuring - in this example the party roles, stored as tags/keys within the collected data (e.g. the beneficiary tag), are converted to values of the role key in the enhanced data.
• Data Enrichment - many derived/enhanced values are self evident in the enhanced report. Including:
  • report and party identifiers allocated,
  • report direction derived,
  • account branch details assoicated to the report,
  • geolocations associated to each address.

Raw Transaction Report

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<transactionReport>
    <amount>7174.8</amount>
    <beneficiaryCustomer>
        <account>
            <branchId>632-000</branchId>
            <institutionCode>BAE</institutionCode>
            <network>swift</network>
            <number>543755926</number>
        </account>
        <address>
            <fullAddress>81B George Street Launceston TAS 7250 AU</fullAddress>
        </address>
        <identification>
            <identificationType>phoneNumber</identificationType>
            <identifier>61424853578</identifier>
        </identification>
        <name>
            <fullName>SHAHIL HOLDINGS PTY LTD</fullName>
        </name>
        </beneficiaryCustomer>
    <orderingCustomer>
        <account>
            <branchId>RBOSGB2102Z</branchId>
            <network>swift</network>
            <number>131189708</number>
        </account>
        <address>
            <fullAddress>Warner &amp; Richardson 29 Jewry Street Winchester GB-ENG SO23 8RR GB</fullAddress>
        </address>
        <identification>
            <identificationType>lei</identificationType>
            <identifier>213800GAGI4QI2V9GL96</identifier>
        </identification>
        <name>
            <fullName>MURDOCH GRANDCHILDRENS A &amp; M SETTLEMENT</fullName>
        </name>
    </orderingCustomer>
    <reference>8977805379481</reference>
    <reportType>internationalFundsTransferInstruction</reportType>
    <transactionDatetime>2020-04-06 03:50:03+00:00</transactionDatetime>
</transactionReport>

Enhanced Transaction Report

{
"transactionReport": [
    {
    "role": [
        {
        "roleType": "orderingCustomer",
        "party": [
            {
            "partyId": "864726b836e490ffe61f0e406a7bebe618dbf3ea7d4b97bcd80d806fde9f5c38",
            "partyType": "business",
            "name": [
                {
                "fullName": "MURDOCH GRANDCHILDRENS A & M SETTLEMENT"
                }
            ],
            "address": [
                {
                "suburb": "Winchester",
                "streetAddress": "Warner & Richardson 29 Jewry Street",
                "postcode": "SO23 8RR",
                "state": "GB-ENG",
                "country": "GB",
                "geolocation": {
                    "lat": 51.5085,
                    "lon": -0.1257
                }
                }
            ],
            "account": [
                {
                "network": "swift",
                "country": "GB",
                "branchId": "RBOSGB2102Z",
                "branchName": "(RBS MORTGAGE CENTRE)",
                "suburb": "Greenock",
                "number": "131189708"
                }
            ],
            "identification": [
                {
                "identificationType": "lei",
                "identifier": "213800GAGI4QI2V9GL96"
                }
            ]
            }
        ]
        },
        {
        "roleType": "beneficiaryCustomer",
        "party": [
            {
            "partyId": "c6b110f4607aa957d0dd6fef4bf871f5ab155c7bbf7e0c4e5d468289ccc6b470",
            "partyType": "business",
            "name": [
                {
                "fullName": "SHAHIL HOLDINGS PTY LTD"
                }
            ],
            "address": [
                {
                "suburb": "Launceston",
                "streetAddress": "81B George Street",
                "postcode": "7250",
                "state": "TAS",
                "country": "AU",
                "geolocation": {
                    "lat": -41.4359541,
                    "lon": 147.1404404
                }
                }
            ],
            "account": [
                {
                "network": "swift",
                "institutionName": "B&E Ltd Trading As Bank Of Us",
                "institutionCode": "BAE",
                "country": "AU",
                "branchId": "632-000",
                "branchName": "Bank of Us",
                "streetAddress": "87 Brisbane Street",
                "postcode": "7250",
                "suburb": "Launceston",
                "state": "TAS",
                "number": "543755926"
                }
            ],
            "identification": [
                {
                "identificationType": "phoneNumber",
                "identifier": "61424853578"
                }
            ]
            }
        ]
        }
    ],
    "report": {
        "reportType": "internationalFundsTransferInstruction",
        "processedDatetime": "2020-04-06T15:36:40+00:00",
        "reportNumber": 583686294343,
        "reporter": "BAE"
    },
    "transaction": {
        "amount": 7174.8,
        "direction": "incoming",
        "transactionDatetime": "2020-04-06T03:50:03+00:00",
        "reference": "8977805379481"
    }
    }
]
}

It must be noted that most derived/enhanced data elements, e.g. geolocation, are generated from the raw report data. Therefore if the reported data is of poor quality the derived/enhanced data will likely be wrong (i.e. garbage in garbage out).