Generali Switzerland

Case Study

Website: www.generali.com
Locations: Switzerland
Sector: Insurance
Solutions: Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer
Modules Used: Filter Customer Master Data & Transaction Filter

ABOUT GENERALI SWITZERLAND

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Generali Switzerland, a subsidiary of the global Generali Group founded in 1831 in Trieste, Italy, is one of the leading insurance providers in Switzerland. The company offers a comprehensive range of insurance products and services, including life, health, property, and business insurance solutions tailored for private and business.

With a strong focus on innovation and customer-centric services, Generali Switzerland is committed to delivering high-quality, tailored solutions that provide security and peace of mind to its clients. As part of the globally renowned Generali Group, Generali Switzerland combines international expertise with a deep understanding of the Swiss market, ensuring excellence in all its offerings.

COMPLIANCE JOURNEY WITH PROSPERO

Generali Switzerland’s commitment to proactive, forward-looking compliance has shaped a long-standing partnership with Prospero, evolving steadily over the past two decades to meet the growing complexity of financial crime regulation. What began in 2007 as a focused initiative to strengthen customer onboarding checks has since expanded into a comprehensive, organisation-wide compliance framework, one that today includes real-time screening of outgoing payments, high-frequency counterparty assessments, and seamless alert management.

Throughout this journey, Generali has consistently stayed ahead of regulatory expectations by embedding compliance into its operational fabric. Prospero’s DetectX® platform has been central to this effort, providing the technology, speed, and precision needed to manage risk confidently and at scale. From early batch screening processes to modern real-time API integrations, the collaboration has enabled Generali to shift from reactive compliance to preventative, intelligence-led decision making. This case study outlines that transformation in two phases:

• Phase One (2007): The establishment of scalable, enterprise-grade name screening capabilities to support onboarding, due diligence, and internal list enforcement.

• Phase Two (2024): The implementation of real-time transaction filtering and intelligent alert management, enabling high-speed counterparty risk controls directly within the payment environment.

Together, these initiatives reflect a strategic and scalable approach to compliance, enabled by the DetectX® platform. What began as targeted name screening during onboarding has evolved into a broader suite of capabilities, including real-time payment filtering, internal list enforcement, and intelligent alert management. This modular progression illustrates how organisations can start with essential controls and progressively build a sophisticated compliance framework that adapts to increasing regulatory complexity without overhauling existing systems.

PHASE ONE: Name Screening as a Foundation

(Launched 2007 – Expanded to Present)

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In the mid-2000s, the landscape of financial crime regulation began to shift rapidly. New European Union directives significantly expanded anti-money laundering obligations across financial institutions, including insurers. These changes placed greater emphasis on customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, and the screening of politically exposed persons (PEPs) and sanctioned individuals, prompting many organisations to reassess their compliance strategies in the years that followed.  While one-off onboarding checks were once standard practice, they no longer met the rising expectations for effective compliance. Regulatory expectations had evolved, demanding systematic, risk-based controls capable of operating at scale with high precision.

Generali Switzerland’s compliance team faced two core challenges. First, they needed to automate name screening to reduce the inefficiencies and inconsistencies of manual processing. Second, they had to ensure that the system would maintain high accuracy, enabling analysts to focus on real threats rather than low-quality alerts. In addition, regulatory expectations around ongoing due diligence required that screening be repeated on a continuous basis using batch processing, not just during onboarding. To address these needs, Generali began working with Prospero to implement the DetectX® platform, introducing intelligent, high-volume screening into both onboarding and ongoing review processes.

SOLUTION

To address these challenges, Generali sought out a superior name screening and customer due diligence solution, which led them to the DetectX® platform. Generali conducted a comprehensive benchmark assessment to evaluate DetectX® against competing technologies. The evaluation tested accuracy, speed, ease of integration, and false positive reduction. Across every category, DetectX® consistently outperformed other vendors. The platform’s ability to deliver high-confidence matches with minimal false positives proved particularly valuable, as it allowed Generali to reduce investigative backlogs while improving detection of genuine risks. DetectX® emerged as the clear choice for supporting Generali’s complex and evolving compliance requirements.

DetectX® was rapidly deployed as a SaaS solution for Generali Switzerland, enabling a smooth transition to automated, high-precision screening. The platform was configured to screen both individuals and legal entities against a consolidated set of global sanctions lists, including those issued by the European Union, United Nations, OFAC, and other key regulatory authorities. This was complemented by the integration of Generali’s internal watchlists, including the Generali Blacklisted and GAV lists, which reflect the company’s internal compliance standards and risk tolerance.

By merging internal and external data sources, DetectX® enabled Generali to maintain full alignment with international regulatory obligations while tailoring its screening process to internal thresholds and risk appetite. The platform’s advanced capabilities, including fuzzy string matching, configurable similarity scoring, and natural language processing for multilingual name parsing significantly improved match accuracy across languages, spelling variations, and transliterations. This resulted in a substantial reduction in false positives, allowing compliance teams to prioritise real threats over low-quality alerts.

DetectX® delivered the performance, reliability, and scalability needed to support Generali’s long-term compliance strategy. Its ability to grow with the organisation, without compromising precision, empowered the compliance team to expand its screening efforts confidently, all while minimising operational overhead.

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AI-Powered Name Screening:

DetectX® uses advanced machine learning algorithms, including Natural Language Processing and fuzzy string matching, to identify matches with unparalleled accuracy and reliable similarity scores.

Fast And Easy Integration

DetectX® offers rapid implementation and effortlessly integrates into existing environments, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.

Regulatory Reporting Automation:

DetectX® provides a comprehensive, end-to-end process management, streamlining every step from search to investigation. With automated detailed reports.

Advanced Link Analysis

DetectX® leverages advanced link analysis to understand, analyse, and visualise the connections and relationships between individuals, business entities, and high-risk individuals.

Multiple Data Sources Checks:

DetectX® seamlessly performs parallel checks for both individual name screening and fully automated batch runs across multiple data sources, including sanction lists, PEP lists, and internal client blacklists and whitelists.

Cross-Jurisdictional Screening:

DetectX® enables accurate screening across diverse regulatory environments and legal frameworks, supporting compliance in multinational contexts with configurable rules, local list integrations, and multilingual capabilities.•

By the end of the first deployment, DetectX® had become a foundational compliance tool at Generali Switzerland. It enabled the organisation to move from one-time, manual compliance checks to a unified compliance model built on continuous monitoring. This first phase set the foundation for further innovation in screening and risk detection, which would later evolve into real-time transaction filtering and AI-driven workflow automation for alert investigation and resolution.

PHASE TWO: Real-Time Transaction Filtering

(Launched 2024 – Present)

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By 2024, Generali Switzerland took the next major step in its compliance journey by introducing real-time transaction filtering to enhance counterparty risk detection and strengthen protection against sanctions breaches and financial crime. This move reflected not only evolving regulatory expectations but also the growing complexity of transactional risk in high-volume insurance operations.

While existing onboarding and batch screening processes offered a strong foundation, they were not designed to detect risks at the moment of payment execution. With thousands of daily transactions, including claims, vendor payments, and internal transfers Generali required the ability to screen each outgoing payment instantly and prevent high-risk transfers before execution.

SOLUTION

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To meet this need, Generali Switzerland embedded the DetectX® Transaction Filter module directly into its payment infrastructure, enabling automated compliance checks on every outgoing transaction in real time. The module screens payment counterparties against a range of critical data sources, including:

• International sanctions lists (e.g. EU, UN, OFAC)

• Generali’s internal watchlist (Generali Blacklist)

• The Generali GAV list (a proprietary list reflecting internal risk assessments)

Screening occurs instantly within the transaction process, allowing the system to flag potentially high-risk counterparties in real time. If a match or close similarity is detected, the payment is paused, and the case is automatically routed to the DetectX® Alert Viewer. This interface enables Generali’s compliance team to review the alert in context, assess associated metadata, and take appropriate action, all within the bounds of Generali’s existing workflows for real-time, daily, and weekly reviews. Crucially, the solution leverages infrastructure already used for scheduled screening activities, allowing Generali to extend its risk controls without incurring significant operational overhead. This upgrade has significantly improved the organisation’s ability to detect, block, and where appropriate release payments before they are executed.

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DetectX® delivers real-time counterparty filtering with minimal disruption to payment workflows, helping Generali stay ahead of emerging risks while maintaining seamless operational continuity.

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Instant Risk Checks

Screen every payment in real time.

Smart Alerts

Flag issues before money moves.

Less Noise, More Accuracy

Catch real risks, not false alarms.

APPLICATION

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The Smart Core of Generali’s Analytics Framework for Seamless Compliance and Risk Management.

The DetectX® Platform now forms a core component of Generali Switzerland’s compliance architecture, enabling real-time transaction filtering and intelligent alert management directly within its payment environment. By embedding these capabilities into the existing claims and payment processing infrastructure, Generali has transformed compliance from a back-end control into a front-line safeguard ensuring that no payment is released without first undergoing a rigorous counterparty risk assessment.

Applications of How DetectX® Solutions Are Being Applied Across Various Areas of Generali's Operations:

Real-Time Transaction Filtering

DetectX® screens every outgoing payment in real time, checking all counterparties against sanctions lists, internal watchlists, and Generali-specific databases. Transactions that trigger a potential match are paused immediately and routed to the DetectX® Alert Viewer for investigation. This proactive screening approach protects Generali from regulatory exposure and financial crime risk at the point of execution.

Claims Disbursement Control

High-volume claims processing, particularly during peak seasons, demands scalable and reliable compliance infrastructure. DetectX® ensures that all claims-related payouts are screened before release, helping prevent fraudulent disbursements or payments to sanctioned individuals or entities. This function supports both operational efficiency and regulatory integrity.

Internal Watchlist Enforcement

Using custom rule logic and list prioritisation, DetectX® screens against Generali's internal watchlists (e.g. Generali Blacklisted, GAV list), enabling more targeted control over sensitive counterparties. This ensures internal compliance protocols are enforced as consistently as external regulations, reducing internal risk and enhancing oversight.

Integrated Alert Management

The DetectX® Alert Viewer centralises all compliance alerts, allowing investigators to review matches, document actions, and escalate cases efficiently. The next upcoming project is the implementation of the LLM-powered four-eye control, streamlining alert triage across real-time and batch screening while maintaining strict oversight.

Vendor and Third-Party Screening

Beyond claims and customer payouts, DetectX® is also applied to payments made to vendors, consultants, and external partners. By embedding screening checks into the accounts payable process, Generali ensures that every payment, not just those related to clients, is covered by its compliance perimeter.

High-Concurrency Screening

DetectX®’s scalable architecture supports hundreds of concurrent screening requests, especially useful during seasonal peaks such as summer claim surges or end-of-year contract processing. This ensures compliance checks continue uninterrupted even under load, without compromising payment timelines or user experience.

Results & Benefits

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“DetectX® has empowered us to maintain compliance seamlessly while ensuring that our processes remain efficient and scalable. The platform’s ability to reduce false positives and adapt to new regulatory challenges has been invaluable in maintaining operational efficiency”

Filiz Ulissi
Head Anti Financial Crime
Generali Switzerland

Through a long-term partnership with Prospero, Generali Switzerland has built a powerful compliance infrastructure anchored by DetectX®. This has transformed both onboarding and transactional processes into intelligent, real-time control points.

Phase One began with enterprise-grade name screening for onboarding and periodic reviews. DetectX® enabled high-precision screening of individuals and legal entities against international sanctions lists, politically exposed person (PEP) data, and Generali’s internal watchlists such as the Generali Blacklisted and GAV lists. Its advanced matching logic, including fuzzy matching, similarity scoring, and natural language processing, significantly reduced false positives while increasing true detection rates. This allowed compliance teams to focus on genuine risk cases and scale screening operations without adding headcount or compromising accuracy.

This comprehensive deployment has delivered clear and measurable benefits:

• Regulatory Alignment:
  Full compliance with evolving European and global financial crime regulations

• Operational Efficiency:
  Fewer false positives, faster investigations, and fully auditable decision-making

• Scalability:
  A platform that grows with Generali’s needs, handling spikes in claim volumes or onboarding surges without disruption

• Risk Reduction:
  Proactive identification and prevention of high-risk customers and transactions, mitigating exposure to fraud, sanctions breaches, and reputational harm

• Transparency:
  A clear and traceable record of every screening event across both customer onboarding and real-time payments

Phase Two extended those capabilities into the transaction layer. With DetectX® embedded directly into the payment infrastructure, Generali now filters every outgoing payment in real time, automatically flagging and halting high-risk transactions before execution. The platform handles over 27 million name checks annually, with up to 5,000 daily claims screened, each involving multiple names. During peak periods, DetectX® supports hundreds of concurrent requests, backed by a capacity plan of 2.7 million high-priority screenings per year and the throughput is 5 requests per second, even at full load.

DetectX® has enabled Generali to prevent high-risk payments, reduce regulatory exposure, and protect its reputation, while maintaining a transparent, auditable record of every screening across both customer onboarding and real-time transaction filtering.

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Case Studies