We are expanding our global footprint into South Africa

After delivering many successful projects supporting client businesses in South Africa (SA), the Lysis Group is excited to announce the formal establishment of our new offices in Cape Town. With more than 20 years’ experience, The Lysis Group delivers a unique combination of financial crime solutions, business operations and training services to the financial services, real estate, legal, accountancy, crypto, gambling and other regulated sectors.

We take service delivery and expertise to the next level
With established operations in London, New York, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Australia, Dublin, Edinburgh, and now in SA, we are well positioned to provide bespoke Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) and anti-money laundering (AML) services to the South African business environment.

In recent years, there has been a steep increase in financial crime across the globe, but institutions do not always have the required expertise or resources to address these risks within their environments/ Enterprise Risk Management frameworks. This is where Lysis can make a real difference in the SA business environment by offering uniquely designed financial crime compliance solutions, that are aligned to the local business landscape and empower firms to operate efficiently whilst simultaneously meeting regulatory anti-money laundering obligations.

The Lysis Group selected SA as an important base for business operations because it offers many value-added propositions for global businesses. One such value proposition includes the fact that SA it is already established as a preferred destination for business process outsourcing and the cost of doing business in the country is almost half of what organisations would spend in Europe. Therefore, Lysis can scale and meet South African clients’ unique needs, in a very efficient and cost-effective manner which is matched by their proactive and highly responsive customer service approach.

Another attractive aspect is the availability of a relatively large number of graduates in the country and a skilled workforce with competencies that fit business requirements, especially in the financial services industry. As a result, to date, Lysis recruited and trained 12 analysts from South Africa at their Cape Town operations centre and as Wendy Murray, Director of the Cape Town operations centre stated, “I am very impressed with the quality of recruits and how well they have mastered the training.”

Furthermore, South Africa’s favourable time zone attracts a lot of global business interests when it comes to maximising productivity and SA serves as a gateway to the rest of the African continent.

Experience has taught us well
Our extensive level of experience shows that a typical team structure for CLM/AML operations consist of a 20% on-shore and 80% off-shore ratio. We find this delivers the optimum balance of customer service, quality and cost effectiveness. In fact, our high-quality near-shore resources can be as little as 50% of our competitive on-shore rates.

Furthermore, all our CLM/AML operational personnel, regardless of location, go through the same robust, structured career and capability development process and we thoroughly test and certify staff at each level. The same certification process is applied across all Lysis operating locations including South Africa.

We also invest in the capability to train, test and certify our staff in line with our clients’ policies and procedures which enhances quality and productivity and increases the effectiveness of new teams and new personnel in existing teams.

Meet the board members of Lysis South Africa

Jon Sweet, Lysis Group CEO
Jon has more than 30 years’ wholesale financial markets experience gained in London, New York, Singapore and Frankfurt. He founded Lysis Financial in 2001 after 11 years with AIM-listed TCA Consulting, where he held a number of senior positions including Head of the Investment Banking, eBusiness and Trading Floor practices.

Wendy Murray, Director
Wendy has over 18 years’ experience in the financial services industry working in AML Compliance, Client On-boarding and AML Operations with investment banks in London including RBS, ING, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. She has both SME knowledge as well as practitioner know-how including extensive experience of complex bank integration projects and global regulatory and compliance driven change. She has provided training globally to over 2,000 CLM personnel and has significant experience of setting up and managing large Customer Due Diligence (CDD) teams across the globe.

Nick Kinloch, Director
Formerly Head of Client Operations for HSBC Global Banking and Markets in Asia-Pacific, Nick is Global Head of Lysis Operations which provides CLM & AML Managed services and remediation support to regulated industries. Nick is also COO of Lysis Group Ltd.

Bringing our unique AML expertise to our South African clients
Credible sources have indicated that South Africa is losing between $10 billion and $25 billion on an annual basis due to illicit financial flows. This highlights the incredible gap that exists and the need for an organisation such as the Lysis Group to assist the local financial sector to invest in expert AML training and protocols.

With an expanded footprint that can support clients on every continent including South Africa, Lysis has a proven track record that is based on extensive experience, exceptional service delivery and sophisticated infrastructure. We can offer clients peace of mind in knowing that their CLM/AML protocols are in line with regulatory requirements no matter how big or small they might be. Furthermore, our clients can focus on expanding their business footprint while we focus on aligning their business operations with regulatory requirements, irrespective of the country they operate in.