ThetaRay, a provider of Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced analytics tools, has joined Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) partner program, One Commercial Partner, which provides various cloud-powered solutions.
ThetaRay’s anti-money laundering (AML) solution for correspondent banking can be accessed through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. A large US bank has reportedly signed an agreement to use the solution.
Mark Gazit, CEO at ThetaRay, stated:
“We are proud to join the One Commercial Partner program and offer Microsoft Azure customers access to our industry-leading AML for Correspondent Banking solution.”
Gazit added:
“Global banks are increasingly de-risking or abandoning their correspondent banking relationships due to a lack of transparency and fears of money laundering and regulatory fines. Our solution provides banks with the … ability to reverse the trend and grow their business by allowing full visibility into all links of the cross-border payment chain, from originator to beneficiary.”
Although the correspondent banking network aims to make it easier for customers looking for international reach, it could potentially allow criminals to carry out money laundering activities by setting up shell companies or by creating accounts that appear to be legitimate, but might be used to conduct illicit activities. Criminals may also use low-risk countries as third-parties before the funds arrive at their final destination.
Many industry professionals are also concerned that the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak could lead to an increase in sophisticated cybercrime, including illicit financial activities.
ThetaRay claims that current AML systems are unable to detect new types of money laundering activities. That’s because they have been created by traditional banks, which used historical rules to set up basic alerts when known threats are detected. Existing AML systems also report many false positives, which significantly increases operational costs.
ThetaRay’s “rules-free” AML solution for correspondent banking uses advanced AI, referred to as “artificial intuition,” in order to detect irregularities in KYC and SWIFT data that may be triggered by illicit financial activities, including money laundering.
Artificial intuition aims to mimic human feelings, perceptions, and reasoning when making decisions. This allows for quick detection of unfamiliar schemes, which helps with early remediation, and ensures that money launderers are not able to circumvent static rules enforced by legacy systems.
Microsoft Azure allows companies to easily set up ThetaRay’s solutions. The system lets users store data via the Azure Data Lake, which offers scalability and is quite useful for an AML solution that needs large amounts of computing power during batch processing.