How KeyBank Uses Automation Anywhere to Secure AML Investigations
KeyBank automated its anti-money laundering suspicious activity referral workflow using Automation Anywhere, eliminating 105,000 manual touchpoints. The AI-powered solution parses email and SharePoint referrals, validates critical data, scores risk, and automatically escalates high-risk cases to AML investigators. With over 400 processes automated, KeyBank has strengthened its compliance posture while freeing staff from time-consuming manual reviews.
Impact
105,000
Manual touchpoints removed
400+
Processes automated
Challenge
KeyBank's AML team processed suspicious activity referrals manually through email and SharePoint, creating inconsistencies, compliance gaps across systems, and significant investigator time burden that slowed escalation of high-risk cases.
Solution
Automation Anywhere's platform automatically parses incoming referrals, extracts and validates critical data points, scores risk, and escalates high-risk cases to AML investigators—converting a manual end-to-end workflow into an AI-driven compliance system.
Tools & Technologies
What Leaders Say
“By leveraging Automation Anywhere's products to develop a next-gen AI-powered solution for AML investigations, we turned an extremely important, albeit manual, time-consuming workflow into a streamlined and intelligent process. This advancement not only enhanced our ability to detect and escalate suspicious activity more effectively but also reinforced our overall commitment to protecting the bank and our clients.”
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Full Story
KeyBank is one of the largest bank-based financial services companies in the United States, managing approximately $189 billion in assets across consumer and commercial accounts. As a major financial institution, it operates under stringent regulatory requirements, with anti-money laundering compliance among its most critical obligations. The bank's commitment to serving clients—articulated as meeting them in the moment—demands both speed and precision in risk management.
Before automation, KeyBank's AML team handled suspicious activity referrals manually. Investigators received reports via email and SharePoint, then individually parsed documents to extract data points, validate information, and assess risk. This approach introduced inconsistencies, left potential compliance gaps across systems, and consumed significant investigator time on tasks that offered little analytical value.
KeyBank worked with Automation Anywhere to build an end-to-end AI-powered AML investigation workflow. Referrals submitted via email or SharePoint are automatically parsed to extract and validate critical data. The system performs risk analysis, routing high-risk cases immediately to the AML investigation team while handling lower-risk referrals through automated workflows. The solution draws on intelligent document processing capabilities to handle varied referral formats consistently.
The automation removed 105,000 manual touchpoints from the AML process, delivering consistent and timely review of all suspicious activity reports. Compliance gaps that previously existed across systems were eliminated, and escalation workflows became faster and more reliable. By the time of publication, KeyBank had automated over 400 processes across the organization, including onboarding functions for a payment protection program and COVID-19 related loss mitigation workflows.
KeyBank's strategic focus for 2025 centers on reinvention, with plans to extend intelligent automation into Agentic AI. The bank is expanding proof-of-concept initiatives with generative AI and deploying advanced monitoring and detection technologies enterprise-wide. The AML automation has become a template for how the bank approaches operational transformation—replacing manual, error-prone compliance processes with AI-driven workflows that scale with regulatory demands.
AWS