AI AML/CFT

F&M Bank improves investigation efficiency with AI-powered AML Assistant

Asset size

$3.3 billion

Product

AML Assistant

Location

Archbold, Ohio

F&M Bank uses AML Assistant to provide its investigators with an AI-generated starting point for every alert, reducing investigation time and creating capacity for higher-value compliance work. Abrigo AML Assistant within BAM+ equips investigators with AI-generated narratives that consolidate customer and transaction information already stored in the platform. Team members now spend less of their valuable time gathering background information and begin each investigation with meaningful context, allowing them to focus on evaluating risk and making informed decisions.

Read the highlights below, or download the full case study to read more about F&M Bank's experience.

Download the full case study

The challenge: Too much time spent gathering information

F&M Bank’s BSA department has grown significantly over the past year. Under the leadership of Jacqueline Wells, Vice President and Bank Secrecy Officer, the team expanded from three employees to five to support the bank’s continued growth.

While the additional staffing helped distribute the workload, investigators still spent considerable time gathering customer history and transaction details before they could begin evaluating alerts. Structuring alerts posed a particular challenge due to their volume and the amount of research required before making an investigative decision.

Wells wanted a solution that reduced manual research while preserving investigator judgment. Any AI capability also needed to be transparent enough to satisfy the bank’s internal governance process and explainable to auditors and examiners.

"Abrigo puts time and effort into the financial crime space. They have experts on the compliance side who break down the regulation. They communicate through the monthly Financial Crime webinars... I don't have a bad word to say. My experience has been amazing."

Jacqueline Wells, Vice President and Bank Secrecy Officer

The solution: AI-generated narratives inside existing workflows

Wells saw AML Assistant as a practical, low-risk way to introduce AI into the BSA program as a natural extension of the platform her team already trusted. Rather than requiring analysts to search across multiple screens, AML Assistant assembles relevant customer information, transaction history, business details, and prior activity already available in BAM+ into a concise investigative narrative.

“It’s generating and consolidating information that is already in the software,” Wells said. “The difference is that I don’t have to go look for it.”

The narrative provides investigators with native information immediately, allowing them to quickly understand the activity before determining whether further investigation is necessary.

The results: Better context, greater efficiency, and stronger onboarding

Since implementing AML Assistant, F&M Bank’s investigators are working through alerts more efficiently because much of the initial information gathering has already been completed.

Wells estimates investigators save about 5 minutes per alert. Across the hundreds of alerts each month at F&M Bank, this translates into dozens of hours of recovered investigative capacity. Rather than simply increasing output, Wells uses that capacity to support quality-control initiatives, CTR exemption reviews, OFAC verification, and other compliance priorities.

“We don’t just sit here and clear alerts all day,” Wells said. “[AML Assistant] has helped us to spread the workload out so they can learn other functions within the BSA department and not be doing the same thing all day long.”

AML Assistant has also become an effective coaching tool for newer investigators by helping them understand what experienced analysts look for during an investigation.