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Global Screening Services has partnered with Storm Reply to add an artificial intelligence-based cloud tool to its sanctions screening platform. The system is intended to speed changes to the infrastructure behind the service.
The new tool, called Cloud Guardian, reviews proposed changes to GSS's cloud infrastructure before release and flags items that may need closer scrutiny. It is designed to help engineers separate routine updates from those requiring more detailed review, while leaving final release decisions with staff.
The move comes as financial institutions face pressure to strengthen sanctions controls. Regulators have pointed to weaknesses including outdated sanctions lists, poor screening settings and delays in updating systems, while the volume of cross-border payments continues to rise.
More than 40 billion cross-border transactions are screened each year for sanctions compliance, often several times to meet rules in different jurisdictions, according to GSS. The company said almost 99% of transactions flagged for further investigation turn out to be false positives, increasing costs and causing delays.
GSS provides sanctions screening technology to regulated financial institutions and has sought to reduce repeated screening and cut the time needed to investigate alerts. It has raised more than USD $47 million, or about GBP £37 million, in a Series A2 funding round.
Faster reviews
According to the companies, the new system has cut preparation time for complex infrastructure releases from about two days to less than four hours. Individual reviews that once took around 30 minutes can now be completed in roughly three minutes, with engineers focusing on issues identified by the tool instead of manually checking every line of a proposed change.
Storm Reply worked with GSS engineers to develop Cloud Guardian as a cloud-native system on Amazon Web Services. The work included testing prompts for the artificial intelligence model, assessing which model could provide reliable analysis at an acceptable cost, and fitting the tool into the existing release process.
Because the system has been integrated into GSS's existing workflow, the business did not need to replace its infrastructure tools or create a separate review process. Its engineers have also built the knowledge needed to maintain the system internally.
Adam Clarke, Chief Technology Officer at GSS, said: "This development means we can make changes to the infrastructure supporting our sanctions screening service much more efficiently, while retaining the level of control and trust needed for technology used by regulated financial institutions.
"Sanctions screening has to operate in an environment that is continually changing. We want the platform underpinning it to evolve just as quickly, so improvements can be introduced without creating unnecessary operational friction or risk."
Human oversight
The companies presented the project as an example of using artificial intelligence to support technical review rather than remove human judgement from regulated processes. In this case, the system analyses proposed infrastructure changes, but engineers remain responsible for deciding whether a release should proceed.
That distinction may matter for financial firms adopting artificial intelligence in compliance-related systems, where governance and accountability remain central concerns. The emphasis on human oversight also reflects wider caution across the sector about fully automating decisions in areas tied to regulatory obligations.
Storm Reply said its role focused on helping GSS improve speed without weakening controls around a platform used by financial institutions. Rachel Grunwerg, Partner at Storm Reply, said: "The challenge was to help GSS move faster without weakening the controls around a highly important financial services platform. The biggest opportunity for AI here was not to automate the final decision, but to reduce the amount of manual interpretation engineers had to do before they could make that decision.
"That is where we see significant potential for AI across financial services - helping people work through complex technical information faster, while keeping expertise, governance and accountability firmly with those responsible."