FinScan has achieved several key technological milestones meeting the evolving needs of the financial services industry. The launch of FinScan Securities, one of the compliance industry’s first financial instrument screening solutions,  leverages FinScan’s proprietary, AI-powered matching engine to help firms tackle the growing problem of investors holding financial interests in sanctioned companies.

In addition, FinScan’s innovations are responding to the transformative shift from traditional Know Your Customer (KYC) processes to perpetual KYC (pKYC) focusing on streamlining customer due diligence and onboarding by delivering powerful customer risk scoring, real-time adverse media screening, beneficial owner identification, identity validation capabilities, and continuous customer monitoring after onboarding is complete.

Bob Colonna, CEO of Innovative Systems, Inc., said: “Partnering with our customers to make them successful is at the forefront of FinScan’s priorities. In 2023, we achieved a 92% client retention rate. We’ve also expanded our base of new customers in all major geographies over the last 18 months, including tier one insurance firms and fintechs. Our commitment to the delivery of reliable, efficient compliance solutions is further proven by the staggering 300 billion annual name screenings our SaaS customers conducted in over 60 countries in just milliseconds.”

A recent FinScan LinkedIn poll showed that 62% of 162 compliance professionals said data quality and accuracy was their compliance team’s biggest screening challenge. A separate poll revealed that 54% said incomplete customer data was the biggest cause of false positives. Another poll of 216 compliance professionals indicated the top challenge they face during KYC onboarding is customer due diligence (43%), followed by customer data quality (35%)—a core strength of FinScan.

Brian Markham, Senior Vice President of Engineering, added: “FinScan’s strategy for the next 12 months continues to focus on harnessing the power of data quality and integrity to drive efficiency, accuracy, and risk reduction for financial institutions and other organizations around the world. Innovative Systems will continue to invest in further development of FinScan to address the evolving needs of its customers and future-proof their AML and KYC processes to adapt to inevitable change.”

In recognition of its innovative solutions and industry leadership, FinScan has received numerous industry accolades. Most recently, FinScan was recognized as:

• “Best Sanction/Watchlist Screening Innovation” in Datos Insights’ 2024 AML Impact Awards
• Solution Leader in the Quadrant Knowledge Solutions’ SPARK Matrix 2024 report on KYC technology
• Category Leader for “Adverse Media Monitoring Solutions” and “Name and Transaction Screening Solutions” in Chartis’ RiskTech Watchlist Monitoring 2024
• “Functionality Standout” in Celent’s Financial Crime Compliance Technology: Watchlist Screening Edition—2024 XCelent Awards
• Top 25 Governance, Risk, and Compliance companies of 2024 by The Financial Technology Report
• 2024 FinCrimeTech50 company and 2024 RegTech100 company by Fintech Global

Looking forward, Steve Maul, Chief Revenue Officer, said: “We remain dedicated to supporting organizations in overcoming their financial crime detection and AML compliance challenges. Our continuous investment in cutting-edge technology and expert guidance ensures our customers can navigate the complexities of the regulatory environment effectively and sustainably.”

About FinScan®

Trusted by hundreds of organizations worldwide, Innovative Systems, Inc.’s FinScan® offers advanced Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance technology and consulting solutions. Built on decades of experience in data management and proprietary matching technologies, FinScan provides a data-first, risk-based approach to ensure unparalleled accuracy and efficiency in identifying and reducing risk, accelerating AML compliance workflows, and optimizing team productivity. FinScan’s comprehensive, integrated platform includes Know Your Customer (KYC), unparalleled sanctions screening, risk scoring, data quality, and advisory services for implementing a holistic compliance program. FinScan offers flexible deployment including SaaS, on-premise, and hybrid options. FinScan’s SaaS clients are screening more than 300 billion names a year. Learn more at www.finscan.com.

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Intelligence can be securely shared across multiple entities, improving collaboration. This helps enhance AI models for boosting productivity and detecting cross-border financial crimes, while also enabling proactive measures to prevent illegal activities.

This methodology aligns with the latest global regulations, including the EU AI Act and onshoring requirements in countries like Singapore and Australia.

The design of the patented technology was born out of Lucinity’s research and development division, Lucinity Labs, which had been looking for a way to strengthen the financial services ecosystem while complying with data sharing laws.

This innovation was applied during a project with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub’s Nordic Centre that explored privacy-enhancing technologies and enhanced cooperation across institutions and borders.

“We believe in bringing connectivity to parts of the world where it wasn’t possible before. The biggest thing holding back adoption of advanced AI systems is the global concern over data security. Now, with our patented technology, algorithms from one market can share essential learnings with another market, and the data remains safe, private, and secure,” says Guðmundur Kristjánsson, CEO and Founder of Lucinity.

This federated learning patent, combined with Lucinity’s Generative AI technology, will unlock unprecedented intelligence in financial services, enabling more precise, efficient, and secure data analysis for combating financial crime.

As well as breaking down barriers in financial crime prevention, there is huge potential for federated learning to be applied in other sectors that handle sensitive data such as healthcare, DNA research, and pharmaceutical practices.

“The possibilities to apply this federated learning patent are endless. It will exponentially increase our capacity to utilize and learn from data like never before,” says Kristjánsson.

Lucinity has been at the forefront of AI technology since its inception. The company also received a patent in 2022 for another piece of AI, their Secure Lockbox, which features pioneering  homomorphic encryption of data. This patent enables Lucinity to encrypt all personally identifiable information (PII) while still using PII as an input into AI in its encrypted form.

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The Datos Insights Fraud & AML Impact Awards program identifies organizations and vendors whose new and disruptive financial crime solutions more effectively and efficiently counter escalating financial crime threats. The Best Authentication Innovation is awarded to new solutions or innovations that deliver best-in-class identity proofing and/or user authentication. Winners were selected by a panel of fraud and AML industry experts and Datos Insights strategic advisors. 2024 marks the fourth year of the program.

TransUnion TruValidate helps organizations combat identity fraud by identity proofing applicants and authenticating existing customers. It recently improved its synthetic identity fraud detection during the identity proofing process by examining both the credit behavior of the consumer and how the consumer shares identity elements with others. Examining identity connectors concurrently with consumer credit profiles enables organizations to maximize their capture of true synthetic identities while decreasing false positives.

“We are honored to have received a Fraud & AML Impact Award for Best Authentication Innovation by Datos Insights,” said Steve Yin, global head of fraud at TransUnion. “As fraudsters increasingly threaten financial institutions through the use of synthetic identities to penetrate their account portfolios, innovation is essential as we work to stay one step ahead of them. TransUnion is committed to maintaining the spirit of innovation required to protect our customers and their resources now and in the future.”

The highly configurable TransUnion TruValidate suite incorporates identity proofing, risk-based authentication and fraud analytics. It also delivers an actionable and robust view of each consumer by linking proprietary data, personal data, device identifiers and online behaviors. This allows organizations across different industries, including Banking, FinTech, Gaming, and more, to help protect their businesses and focus on offering effective, personalized and friction-right experiences through a light-touch and flexible integration.

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Secura/Isaac Group (SIG), a global advisory firm led by former FDIC and Fifth Third Bancorp Chairman William Isaac, excels at guiding clients through today’s complex regulatory environment and implementing important industry initiatives. The team of highly experienced former bankers, regulators, and finance executives helps clients address the unprecedented challenges posed by rapid technological advances, growing cybercrime activity, and a shifting regulatory landscape.

Partnering with Consilient, Secura/Isaac Group will offer its financial services clients access to state-of-the-art technology that revolutionizes financial crime detection.

Consilient is the first company in the world to develop and deploy an AI/Federated Learning platform and library of algorithms designed to discover and manage financial crime and fraud risk. Consilient’s innovative Federated Learning approach trains models locally within organizations, identifying high-risk behaviors through a privacy-protected methodology. These models are then aggregated and validated to create a superior “champion” model, which is continuously refined and delivered back to organizations for optimal performance. The networked effect of the Consilient approach allows for individual institutions to benefit from shared insights without ever moving, sharing, or aggregating data.

As a result, Consilient allows financial institutions to discover and manage financial crime and fraud risks more efficiently and effectively while preserving data privacy. Consilient’s solution ensures that algorithms and insights are shared, but data remains secure within its original environment. This capability enables institutions, regulators, and jurisdictions to collaborate and enhance risk management without the obstacles of exposing data outside of client firewalls and the inherent cyber-crime risks that brings.

“We are delighted to offer such state-of-the-art technology to our clients,” said Bill Isaac, Chairman of Secura/Isaac Group. “Consilient’s solution, which has impressed regulators, significantly enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of identifying high-risk behaviors in financial institutions.”

“At Consilient, we are proud to harness the power of AI’s Federated Learning and behavioral analytics to transform financial crime detection,” said Ajit Tharakan, CEO of Consilient. “We look forward to helping Secura/Isaac’s clients uncover risks and dramatically improve their effectiveness in combating money laundering and financial crime.”

“This important partnership between Consilient and Secura/Isaac will accelerate the understanding and adoption of our groundbreaking approach that allows for a more effective financial crime risk management system,” said Juan Zarate, Chair and Co-Founder of Consilient and global co-managing partner at K2 Integrity. “This innovative solution will ultimately transform the current anti-money laundering system, and we look forward to bringing this to fruition with Chairman Isaac and the deeply expert Secura/Isaac team.”

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Mr. Ryan brings over 30 years of experience in the security, cryptocurrency, and payments markets, including as an executive at Mastercard. Mr. Shomer is a seasoned technology leader with extensive experience in cybersecurity and R&D. Ms. Fradkin is a certified accountant with a rich background in finance and operations within the high-tech sector. Ms. Anderson brings over 30 years of marketing expertise, having led global strategies for IBM and various tech startups.

“In today’s ever-changing digital economy, IVIX is committed to helping combat financial crime by bringing compliance efforts into the digital age. We are thrilled to announce the addition of these talented experts who will play a critical role in expanding IVIX’s capabilities and delivering cutting-edge financial technology solutions,” said Matan Fattal, co-founder and CEO of IVIX. “Each of these leaders brings unique expertise that will drive IVIX’s growth and enhance our mission to help governments address financial crime at scale.”

IVIX is committed to gender representation at every level of its business. With these new hires, the representation of women in company leadership has grown to more than 40 percent — including 66 percent of team leads. Women also make up 50 percent of IVIX’s R&D team, as well as 45 percent of IVIX’s global staff, well above the current Israeli industry average. IVIX’s strong female representation in core roles is also a testament to the company’s leadership at the forefront of the tech industry, where diversity is key to innovation and success.

Stephen Ryan, Chief Revenue Officer, joins IVIX with over 30 years of experience in the security, cryptocurrency, and payments markets. Most recently, he co-founded and served as Chief Revenue Officer of CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency analytics company acquired by Mastercard in 2021. A seasoned executive and serial entrepreneur, Mr. Ryan has also been an early-stage advisor to successful Silicon Valley companies such as PayPal, Splunk, and Bolt. His extensive career includes executive roles at Online Resources, Bottomline Technologies, IronKey, Arcot Systems, Visa USA, and First Data. Mr. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Old Dominion University.

Andrey Shomer, Chief Technology Officer, brings a wealth of experience in technological engineering and research leadership to IVIX. His career includes roles such as Product Manager at Argus Cyber Security, Head of Research at Mitiga, and VP of R&D at Block.a (PropTech). Andrey also has 10 years of extensive R&D and cybersecurity leadership experience in Israel’s elite IDF intelligence unit 8200.

Melissa Anderson, Vice President of Marketing, brings over 30 years of experience in marketing and communications in the tech sector. Melissa has led marketing efforts for high-growth startups, global tech companies, and government agencies. She specializes in building results-oriented marketing programs from the ground up. Melissa has held leadership roles at IBM and Edelman, and has managed high-profile campaigns for Apple, Microsoft, and state and local governments.

Linoy Fradkin, Vice President of Finance, has extensive experience managing Finance and Operations divisions, with a focus on growth and strategic development in both public companies and private startups. Linoy is a certified accountant with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Economics and an MBA. She started her career at PwC and has since worked in various finance roles within the high-tech ecosystem.

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Napier AI provides its Transaction Screening product in a cloud environment, to Salt Bank. The solution will enable Salt Bank to handle 100s of millions of transactions easily. This award-winning solution is equipped with:

• a user-friendly interface with customisable workflows;
• Deployment in the cloud;
• a sandbox environment for optimising screening configurations;
• and configurable dashboards with no-code rule building and AI insights for efficient decision-making.

With its name rooted in the Romanian word for leap, the neobank is set to transform Romanian banking. It offers a top-notch digital experience for the new generation of customers who prefer banking on their smartphones.

The collaboration reinforces Salt Bank’s engagement in having robust tools within the current AML ecosystem, which is being reshaped by dynamic changes in regulations, evolving ML/TF and fraud risks, and ever-increasing customer demand for a seamless online experience. Partnering with an AML RegTech with NextGen technology and scalability will help Salt Bank address consumer demands for faster, more convenient ways to bank and strengthen its AML framework.

“We chose the Napier AI platform because it offered NextGen technology which enables us to strengthen our financial crime controls and matches our drive to offer clients a seamless digital experience, within a robust regulatory compliant environment. It is part of our amazing project to disrupt the Romanian banking sector as its first 100% digital bank Made in Romania. Napier’s cloud-native platform was deployed at speed, delivering us tangible results for financial crime tools when launching as a neobank,” says Gabriela Nistor, CEO of Salt Bank.

“Napier AI’s industry-leading Transaction Screening solution is set to help Salt Bank succeed in setting a new standard for banking in Romania. It is an exciting time for the industry and market, and I am excited to see how we work together to bring best-in-class financial crime compliance to the next generation of digital banking users,” says Greg Watson, CEO, Napier AI.

Napier AI is proud to support Salt Bank in its period of huge growth and set a new standard of excellence in the banking and financial crime compliance industry.

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The FinCrimeTech50 list emerges against a backdrop of escalating global financial crime, spurred by rapid technological advances and complex geopolitical and economic challenges. This year’s theme focuses on the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which both criminals and professionals are using with increasing sophistication.

With a global staff of over 4,000 highly trained analysts and subject matter experts, the AML RightSource offers a comprehensive suite of anti-money laundering services, including fraud prevention, transaction monitoring, client onboarding (KYC), enhanced due diligence, and risk management. AML RightSource’s tailored solutions cater to financial institutions, FinTechs, money service businesses, and corporations around the world.

In a recent collaborative study with HFS Research, AML RightSource unveiled new insights into the interplay between people and technology in financial crime compliance. The report, titled “People and Tech Imperative: Driving a New Era of Automation in FinCrime Compliance,” highlights how a balanced approach, leveraging both human expertise and advanced automation, is crucial for navigating the complexities of today’s financial crime landscape. This research underscores AML RightSource’s commitment to fostering innovations that enhance human decision-making and streamline compliance processes.

“At AML RightSource, we firmly believe that the backbone of innovation is our people. While we are at the forefront of integrating emerging technologies into our solutions, our primary focus remains on ‘people-first’ innovation. We understand that technology is most powerful when it amplifies the capabilities of our skilled professionals. This synergy is what drives our success in creating more effective and efficient compliance environments for our clients worldwide,” said Frank Ewing, Chief Executive Officer at AML RightSource. “We are honored to be recognized among the elite companies that are making significant contributions to the financial crime risk management strategies that protect the integrity of the financial services industry.”

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Under the terms of the agreement, the Fund will acquire a majority stake in BioCatch, buying out shares primarily from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and Maverick Ventures, in a secondary transaction valuing the Company at a total enterprise valuation of $1.3bn.

BioCatch was founded in 2011 – at the dawn of a significant consumer shift from branch to online banking – with a mission to fight fraud and keep users safe in online transactions without disrupting user experience. Today, the Company is a leader in behavioral biometric intelligence and advanced fraud detection, leveraging patented artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning technology to analyze a user’s cognitive intent and deliver highly accurate insights as to the legitimacy of their identity, motivations, and behavior. In 2023, the Company expanded its mission to include a proactive approach to fighting financial crime with the launch of predictive, behavior-based mule account detection.

As fraud attacks have become increasingly scaled, sophisticated and complex, BioCatch has experienced significant and sustained momentum. Permira, via its growth equity strategy, completed an initial minority investment in the Company in early 2023, a year that BioCatch ultimately finished with 49% ARR growth, whilst also surpassing the $100 million ARR milestone and attaining EBITDA profitability. Today, BioCatch counts more than 190 financial institutions as customers globally, including over 30 of the world’s largest 100 global banks, who use its solutions to fight fraud, facilitate financial crime prevention and decision intelligence sharing, accelerate digital transformation, and grow the value of customer relationships.

Permira brings a growth mindset to BioCatch’s next chapter, with the ability and network to help the Company expand across Continental Europe, where Permira was first established nearly four decades ago. In addition, Permira is excited to back the Company’s exceptional management team and innovative product roadmap, and is committed to further strengthening BioCatch’s global leadership position both organically and inorganically.

“Permira has backed the theme of cybersecurity for several years, and within this, online fraud detection, customer identity and access management markets have become a clear focus. We have tracked BioCatch with enthusiasm for many years, and now having been a shareholder since early 2023, our conviction in the business, its growth potential, its technology leadership, and its management team continues to grow. We’re excited to become the company’s majority shareholder and look forward to a continued successful partnership with Gadi and the BioCatch team as we seek to further accelerate growth and expansion in the years to come,” said Stefan Dziarski, Partner and Co-Head of Permira Growth Opportunities.

Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch, added: “After building a strong partnership with Permira over the last year, we are delighted to welcome them as majority shareholders. The firm’s impressive experience within technology and cybersecurity, combined with their scale, global network, and our close working relationship, has been invaluable since their initial investment. We’re excited to take BioCatch to the next level together. I’d also like to thank Matthew Kinsella from Maverick Ventures and Dewey Awad from Bain Capital for their support over the last four years, which has been key in helping us establish our leadership position in the market.”

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Financial institutions and other regulated entities are required by law to ensure the people and organizations they choose to do business with are legitimate and that the transactions they facilitate are legal. ComplyAdvantage uses AI and machine learning to parse through a continuously updated database of entities to give clients the most accurate 360-degree view of financial crime risk. As clients respond to alerts, a feedback loop continuously enriches the insights ComplyAdvantage provides. Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation using sophisticated natural language processing will bring additional disparate data sources into ComplyAdvantage’s data ingestion layer to provide clients with even more comprehensive, real-time financial crime risk insights.

As part of the acquisition, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) joins an illustrious group of leading technology investors, including Goldman Sachs, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Index Ventures, and Balderton Capital.

This announcement comes on the back of continued momentum for ComplyAdvantage as the scale-up continues its impressive growth, significantly expanding its client roster since the last fundraising round led by Goldman Sachs. The acquisition also strengthens ComplyAdvantage’s foothold in North America, with Golden bringing an extensive base of U.S. customers.

“Delivering AI-enriched financial crime insights to our customers through a best-in-class user experience built on the most interconnected data has been our north star at ComplyAdvantage since day one. The acquisition of Golden is a critical milestone on that journey,” said Vatsa Narasimha, CEO of ComplyAdvantage. “We are excited to welcome their talented team to the ComplyAdvantage family, alongside a16z, who bring powerful expertise as we embark on the next phase of our growth journey.”

Jude Gomila, Golden founder and CEO, who will join ComplyAdvantage as a board observer and special adviser, added: “I have known Charlie Delingpole, the founder of ComplyAdvantage, since 2005, and I am thrilled to bring together our capabilities. By combining our experienced team of AI and large language model (LLM) specialists with ComplyAdvantage’s industry-leading data science team, we are creating a global team of data experts. Together, I’m confident we will transform financial crime risk management for businesses worldwide.”

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“GenAI is a powerful tool. However, it is too slow, too expensive and has too many random behaviors to be used responsibly in a regulatory environment entirely on its own,” said Peter Cousins, WorkFusion’s Chief Technology Officer. “But when GenAI is supplemented by an ensemble of people and other AI approaches you get great results, you don’t overpay, and you don’t wait too long. This helps financial institutions leverage the benefits of GenAI without the added risks.”

AI Digital Workers are co-pilots for AML analyst teams. These autonomous workplace agents (AWAs) use machine learning to review and disposition alerts, conduct third-party enrichment searches, gather data and analyze text and record evidence and supporting documentation in near real-time. The addition of GenAI makes AI Digital Workers better by:

Enhancing Automation Rates

Automation rates are now accelerated for WorkFusion’s AI Digital Workers. For example, financial institutions conduct adverse media reviews as part of their onboarding and other AML/Know Your Customer (KYC) processes to understand who they are dealing with and if there is a reputational or legal risk in doing business with the entity. This process can take five to 20 minutes per review. Using AI, the standard automation rate to review adverse media for WorkFusion’s AI Digital Worker Evelyn typically reduces the manual work by 60-80 percent. With the addition of large language models (LLMs), Evelyn’s automation rate can reach up to 95 percent straight-through processing (STP), when/where an organization’s risk appetite allows.

Reducing Error Rates to Nearly Zero

AI is only as good as the information it’s able to gather and consider. For AI Digital Workers Evelyn and Tara, the combination of AI and GenAI further reduces error rates to near zero. Much like a patient seeking a second opinion from a doctor, WorkFusion AI Digital Workers can leverage two streams of decision-making, dramatically lowering the odds of an error in either of them. People only become involved when there is a tie-breaking decision to be made.

Producing detailed narratives

With GenAI, all pre-built AI Digital Workers can go beyond current template-based narratives to LLM summaries. Being able to summarize decisions and explain them succinctly in a way that human colleagues can understand, including supervisors, risk officers, and regulators ensures explainability and trust. Detailed narratives allow AML analysts to move from being authors to editors, collecting data from various sources and simply reviewing it for better understanding. This speeds up the time for an analyst to make a decision, be it the speed to adjudicate an alert or the speed to file a suspicious activity report (SAR), etc.

About WorkFusion

WorkFusion, Inc. is the creator of AI Digital Workers purpose-built to support regulatory compliance for banking and financial services organizations. Its Digital Workers are true knowledge workers that augment existing teams in functions like anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, customer onboarding, Know Your Customer (KYC), and customer service. WorkFusion’s digital workforce solutions help solve talent shortages, increase workforce capacity, save money, enhance employee and customer satisfaction, mitigate risk and improve compliance posture. For more information visit workfusion.com.

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