Hopeful Headlines: a masterclass
A press release claiming "counterterrorism solutions" made us sit up and take notice. But not for long....
We all know that salesmen are allowed a degree of leeway when presenting their products. And we all know that marketing releases don't have to tell the truth so long as they don't actually lie (if you want to know more just do an internet search for The Carbolic Smokeball case) except in financial services where anything not entirely clear to the customer is likely to be deemed "misleading." The tendency of software providers to describe their products as "solutions" is long established but it still grates amongst counter-money laundering professionals who know that a solution is the one thing no one can deliver.
And we all know that we are even further away from being able to identify the funding of terrorism until after the event and that prevention is a wonderful but unattainable objective.
So it is a surprise to get a press release from Computer Sciences Corporation Inc of the USA headed "CSC Unveils Counterterrorism Solutions for Financial Services Firms."
Of course, the body of the press release uses the same term but claims no such thing: it's basically OFAC monitoring with a few whistles and bells. And the company is proud to announce it has two customers.
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