How KeyBank Uses Automation Anywhere to Secure AML Investigations

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.