Navigating regulatory, financial crime and risk challenges across insurance and pensions
Insurance and pensions play an essential role in protecting individuals, businesses and long-term financial security. The sectors are evolving through digital distribution, new products, changing customer expectations and increased reliance on intermediaries, while regulatory expectations around governance, customer outcomes, operational resilience and financial crime continue to increase.
Kharis & Knoble supports insurance and pensions businesses in navigating these evolving challenges, helping them strengthen their risk, compliance, governance and financial crime frameworks while maintaining effective and sustainable operating models.
Insurers Reinsurers Insurance intermediaries Pension providers Pension administrators
Although insurance and pension products are generally considered to present lower inherent money laundering risks than some other areas of financial services, firms can still be exposed to the proceeds of crime through premiums, claims, investments, policy structures and customer relationships.
The increasing use of digital channels, third party distribution and intermediaries can also introduce additional risks and complexity. Key financial crime risks can include:
Fraud, including fraudulent insurance claims, application fraud and identity fraud
Money laundering, including the use of insurance premiums, policy proceeds or investment structures to move or conceal illicit funds
Sanctions risk, particularly where customers, counterparties, beneficiaries or transactions have international connections
Bribery and corruption, particularly where intermediaries, third parties or complex distribution arrangements are involved
Financial crime through intermediaries, where reliance on third parties can create challenges around customer due diligence, oversight and control effectiveness
Effective risk management therefore requires firms to understand their products, customers, distribution channels and third party relationships, while ensuring financial crime controls remain proportionate to the risks presented.
Kharis & Knoble supports insurance and pensions businesses to assess, strengthen and transform their financial crime, compliance, risk and governance frameworks.
We help firms identify weaknesses in their existing frameworks, systems and controls and implement practical enhancements to address regulatory expectations, emerging risks and changing business models.
Our experience includes supporting businesses through independent assessments, regulatory scrutiny, remediation and transformation programmes, as well as strengthening KYC, financial crime controls, governance and wider compliance capabilities.
We also support new and growing businesses as they develop their operating models and prepare for regulatory authorisation or expansion.
Our Approach
We understand that every insurance and pensions business has a different product offering, customer base, distribution model, intermediary network and risk appetite. We therefore work closely with our clients to understand their business and develop an effective, proportionate and risk-based approach to managing regulatory, compliance and financial crime risk. Our approach helps deliver:
We help firms identify and assess the financial crime risks arising from their products, customers, claims, transactions, distribution channels and third party relationships, enabling them to implement controls proportionate to their risk exposure.
We help clients understand and meet their regulatory obligations, strengthen governance and controls, and establish robust documentation and evidence to support regulatory assurance.
We support firms in strengthening customer due diligence, customer risk assessment, ongoing monitoring and remediation, including where customers, beneficiaries or ownership structures are complex.
We help businesses strengthen their ability to prevent, detect and respond to fraud, including claims fraud, application fraud and other increasingly sophisticated forms of financial crime.
We help firms understand and manage the risks arising from intermediaries and other third parties, strengthening governance, oversight, due diligence and control frameworks.
We help firms use technology, data and AI to enhance compliance and financial crime capabilities, while maintaining appropriate governance, oversight, human judgement and regulatory assurance.
We work with clients to strengthen their compliance and financial crime operating models, embedding sustainable improvements that support regulatory expectations, customer outcomes and long-term business objectives.
Our services support the full spectrum of insurance and pensions risk, compliance, financial crime and governance needs. We can assist with:
Financial crime risk assessments AML and sanctions frameworks Fraud risk management KYC and customer risk management Transaction monitoring Regulatory remediation Independent assessments Governance and operating models Intermediary and third party risk Technology and data transformation AI assurance Regulatory authorisation Compliance transformation
Whether strengthening an existing framework, responding to regulatory scrutiny, managing emerging financial crime risks or preparing for future growth, Kharis & Knoble provides practical, proportionate and risk-based expertise to help insurance and pensions businesses navigate complexity and operate with confidence.
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