Linksfield Technologies, the North London-based Microsoft Gold Partner and specialist financial services technology provider, today commented on the historic fine levied by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), for failing to ensure that its customers and their transactions were not involved in terrorism.

Linksfield's solution in this area, the Financial Sanctions Register (FSR) Checker, automates the checking of the financial sanctions list, and is used by numerous financial institutions, allowing them easily to comply with their legal obligations in line with the Third Money Laundering Directive.

Commenting on today's developments, Larry Shapiro, Director at Linksfield said: "This first fine by the FSA is hugely significant, since many financial institutions we speak with have not believed that the FSA is serious about them needing to do these checks. Today's action underlines the importance now being attached to this area by the authorities, following on from the FSA's report in April 2009 and HM Treasury's recent draft terrorist asset-freezing bill. Our FSR Checker solution, which has been in the market since its launch in 2007, has been a real success, with customers spanning the mortgage lending, banking, wealth management and insurance sectors." In addition to providing a full evidence trail to demonstrate precisely what check were done when, the FSR Checker also provides advanced "fuzzy matching" algorithms for the key name and address fields - since individuals and companies listed on the register often try disguise their true identity and alter documents.