Sybase Product Targets Patriot Act Compliance

Sybase

But so far, solution providers said, they have not seen a widespread need among clients to meet the requirements of the act.

The USA Patriot Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, requires companies to more closely monitor transactions for suspicious activity.

The Sybase PATRIOTcompliance solution is aimed at helping banks, securities and insurance companies integrate business processes within their enterprises to meet the requirements of the act, said Bob Breton, senior director of product strategy at Sybase.

Those requirements include closer transaction monitoring to detect money-laundering crimes and alerts if a person on a government-issued list of suspects tries to make a transaction with a financial organization, he said.

"For instance, you cannot open an account with someone on the Office of Foreign Asset Control suspect list," Breton said. "[Companies now are responsible for monitoring suspect activities."

Whereas in the past, companies could just view transactions for suspicious activity, now they must monitor prospective customers, he said.

"Now [companies are looking at transactions of designated individuals, corporations and countries," Breton said. "Enhancements go beyond just the transaction view."

Financial institutions have until October to come into compliance with the law or face criminal charges or penalties of up to $10,000 per day, Breton said.

Solution providers, though, said their clients have not been requesting solutions to become compliant with the Patriot Act.

Brad Murphy, senior vice president of strategic business development at Dallas-based Valtech Technologies, said he only recently heard about the need for compliance with the act at an IBM business partners summit.

"We haven't seen a need for it," Murphy said. "Until [someone at the meeting had mentioned it, I had never heard about it."

Amine Kechfe, vice president of business development at PSI Systems, a custom software development firm in Palo Alto, Calif., said he, too, has not had a client requesting a solution for USA Patriot Act compliance. But he said helping companies meet the requirements of government regulation can be "challenging."

PATRIOTcompliance Solution is built on Sybase's Java-based application server and has two main features: a solution for investigative case management, which clears potential customers for transactions, and a monitoring alert framework, which will automatically alert someone in the company to a transaction or potential customer that is suspect.

The minimum price for the basic solution is about $80,000, Breton said. Sybase also can include its integration software or portal server in the solution package if a company needs a platform on which to run the solution, he said.