Money laundering and terrorist financing are on the minds of government officials around the world, even where Bitcoin is concerned. The new Equifax Watchlist Check helps companies fight financial crime in real-time
The Equifax Watchlist Check
Equifax and BAE Systems have joined forces to launch this new initiative, which is designed to combat financial crime in real-time. By actively screening global data, the Equifax Watchlist Check will support compliance with the EU Money Laundering Directive, which needs to be impacted by member states before mid-2017. This also includes additional regulation for financial services companies in the EU.
Accessing quality financial crime solutions is invaluable when actively addressing money laundering and terrorist financing these days, and this feature will become accessible to all business sizes. Customers will be screened against the Dow Jones Watchlist, including a list of sanctioned individuals, politically exposed individuals, and special interest persons and entities.
However, there is always some level of optimization to be achieved, and the Equifax Watchlist Check uses various data elements to screen customers. Doing so should help improve accuracy while minimising the number of false positive matches. Moreover, businesses can prioritise review cases as they see fit.
Equifax Head of Fraud and Identity John Masden stated:
“Fighting financial crime is a top priority for regulators. If companies can’t evidence that they have the right checks in place the implications can be huge – the multi-million-pound fines we’ve seen prove this. Using Equifax Watchlist Check helps companies meet their regulatory requirements and improves efficiency, particularly as the reduction in false positives avoids unnecessary time-consuming investigations. For sanctions alone, our solution checks 900 lists in 60 jurisdictions – the sheer volume of data means it’s essential for companies to have the right technology on board.”
While all of these efforts are commendable, there is an argument to be made as to how blockchain technology can play a role in this process as well. Given the transparent nature of Bitcoin technology, it only makes sense to use the blockchain in this regard. Although criminals seem to be growing smarter over time, these types of technology can help enterprises in fighting financial crime.
Source: Finextra
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