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Data Analytics

DATAcomb is Honeycomb’s unique set of data analytics tools and utilisation.

The upsurge in the volume of data and the systems of storage/management has altered the way that businesses operate, report, control risk and make decisions. It is no longer enough to simply rely on intuition, experience, and old fashioned controls.

The ability to monitor transactions, understand their meaning and relationship, as well as identify challenges to integrity, relies on having the resources to manage data points that often number in the millions. Organisations need to be able to take effective decisions, manage risks and regulate the flow of operations. This is particularly important when analysing vulnerability to risks such as fraud, cybercrime, manipulation or investigating the aftermath of an acute risk event.

We have a wide range of technical and data analytic tools at our disposal to help deal with large volumes of verbal and numerical data in a swift and effective manner. Our combination of technical skills and specialist resources allows us to analyse and interrogate data banks which can involve millions of transactions. We are able to break open almost any type and volume of transactional records to pinpoint ‘at risk’ transactions and those involved in them. We are also highly adept at identifying the transactions which fit into already established instances of fraud or breaches of integrity.

Honeycomb is one of only a handful of service providers outside of the Big Four accountancy firms to provide this service.

Data Analytics

International Bank Money Laundering Data Analysis

Honeycomb was instructed when a small international bank with a presence in 6 countries was concerned that it was being used to facilitate money laundering. Clearly the risks of this to the bank both operationally and in regulatory terms was immense. Honeycomb was able to deploy its DATAcomb range of data analytic tools to create a risk algorithm and threat profile with which it then trawled through 1.7 million transactions over 4 years. The first results highlighted a number of issues in a threat hierarchy. At the top of the pyramid were 42 data sets covering all 6 countries, 164 account holders and a little over 3,000 transactions. The investigation and use of DATAcomb led to all account holders being removed, a number of intermediary entities including lawyers and accountants being implicated in facilitating money laundering, and two of their own bank managers being suspended and prosecuted. The Bank calculated that the investigation had saved them millions in terms of avoided fines, and an incalculable amount in terms of preserved integrity and reputation.

Tracing Analysis into Corruption Conspiracy

Honeycomb was instructed in a large tracing exercise as part of a dispute over a corruption conspiracy. Although the number of transactions was not large, only 80,000, the benefit of using data analytics is that it exposes trends and relationships and demonstrates robustly what transactions are high risk, and which low. The application of DATAcomb in this case allowed, first, the facts of the case to be properly set out and analysed, the transactions to be set out in an orderly and manageable format, and the risk profile of individual transactions to be assessed. As a result of our work, a small number of transactions were identified with an unacceptable risk profile. These were then subjected to more substantive testing at the end of which it was determined that there was insufficient evidence of corruption.

For further reading:

•   E-disclosure Platforms  •  Digital Forensics   •  Asset Tracing  •  Information and Intelligence Gathering