Identity platform Trulioo announces an expanded collaboration with Nium, the real-time cross-border payments company, at Money20/20 Asia in Bangkok.

Nium has integrated the Trulioo Person Match identity verification capability to deliver rapid, compliant payment experiences for its UK operations.

Initiating their partnership in 2015 for Nium’s North American operations, the capabilities and expertise of Trulioo have since empowered Nium to navigate highly regulated markets, ensuring anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) compliance for transactions on both ends, including thin-file consumers.

Presently, Nium operates a real-time, cross-border payments network facilitating collections and payouts to bank accounts, digital wallets, and cards across over 100 currencies and 190 markets.

The extended Trulioo partnership bolsters Nium’s UK operations, reducing the need for extensive administrative or engineering efforts in order to meet stringent KYC, AML, and counter-terrorist financing controls required by money service business licences across multiple markets.

Dylan Lowrey, general counsel at Nium, commented: “When you are delivering new compliance solutions, you want a proven and trusted partner with global, 24/7 support to guide you and explain the landscape.

“As we assessed our UK compliance requirements, leveraging our trusted relationship with Trulioo only made sense. Trulioo Person Match provides us with comprehensive data sets, which are crucial for identity verification.”

While Steve Munford, CEO at Trulioo, adds: “Moving payment and transaction operations across borders doesn’t have to be a headache. Our unparalleled global coverage and easily integrated APIs deliver comprehensive data sets that accelerate verification and expedite market expansion without elaborate infrastructure overhauls.

“The latest chapter in our long-standing partnership with Nium illustrates how data excellence, market expertise and a shared commitment to compliance cultivate success anywhere in the world.”

Since expanding its partnership with Trulioo to the UK, Nium has increased its overall verification rate by 27 per cent and now verifies customers in less than 6.43 seconds, beating its eight-second goal.

The latest survey from digital compliance specialists SmartSearch has revealed that firms do not always complete verification checks when taking on new business clients. Over half of the firms questioned admitted to skipping this critical step despite the clear regulatory requirement to do so.

Property firms, including estate agents are most likely to skip this critical step, with 65 per cent of firms admitting they do not always carry out verification checks on new business clients. The remaining firms across the legal, finance and accountancy sectors all reported similar results, with around 58 per cent of respondents not always verifying identities.

The same survey also found that as part of checks, only 37 per cent of regulated firms actually identify the ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) – a drop from more than half (53 per cent) in the previous year’s survey. This is despite the fact that all regulated firms are required under the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations to determine the ultimate beneficial owner of any business they have dealings with.

Time to take action

Martin Cheek, managing director of SmartSearch and a qualified lawyer, said: “There’s no question that KYB processes can be the most complex part of compliance, but given the significant red flags businesses are exposed to, it is also one of the most critical. Given the clear requirements of regulators, advancements in technology can help streamline this process considerably and help firms complete such checks. Now is the time to take action to not only protect the business from serious financial crime, but prevent any intervention from the regulator.

“By implementing a digital compliance strategy, regulated firms can start to build a proper picture of the businesses they are working with and truly assess any risks posed.”

The importance of UBO checks and robust Know Your Business (KYB) procedures has been amplified recently, as new research from Moody’s Analytics revealed that the UK is number one in the world for shell company-related risks, with nearly five million red flags. This is considerably higher than China, in second place, and the United States in third.

DataVisor, the AI-powered fraud and risk platform, has expanded its end-to-end platform capabilities with the integration of SMS customer verification for fraudulent transactions, powered by Twilio technology.

It describes the integration as a significant step forward in its commitment to providing a comprehensive and seamless fraud prevention experience.

Customers will benefit from improved fraud protection through expanded end-user authentication and verification features, while experiencing a more seamless end-to-end fraud operation within the DataVisor platform.

“By integrating robust fraud capabilities and centralising intelligence, including third-party data and SMS verification, into the DataVisor ecosystem, we’re advancing our commitment to providing unparalleled protection against constantly evolving threats,” said Fang Yu, co-founder and chief product officer at DataVisor.

Customers can selectively target high-risk segments of traffic, sending fully customised SMS verifications instead of prematurely rejecting transactions or sending them for lengthy review.

The DataVisor platform also allows the storage of SMS verification results to prevent future redundant text messages and repeated user friction.

Last month,  DataVisor was selected by NYMBUS, a provider of cloud-based financial technology solutions, to provide fraud management across its suite of digital banking offerings.

Through the strategic partnership, Nymbus will harness the power of DataVisor’s next-generation fraud and risk platform to provide its customers with robust fraud protection powered by AI and advanced machine learning.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security plans to roll out a new blockchain-based platform called RealDID to verify the real-name identities of its citizens. 

According to a press release for an event held on Dec. 12 by the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), a Chinese blockchain firm, the project, planned with the Chinese government,  will have multiple use cases. These include personal real name confirmation, personal data encrypted protection and certification, private logins, business identities, personal identification certificate services and information vouchers on personal identity.

The application will allow Chinese citizens to register and log into online portals anonymously using DID addresses, which will ensure transactions and data remain private between individuals and businesses.

While there was no official mention of the rollout date or when it will be implemented across China’s massive 1.4 billion-strong population, the announcement said it had “huge potential” in guaranteeing personal privacy. 

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BSN is operated by China’s National Information Center, and has ties with China-based Big Tech companies such as China Mobile and China UnionPay. 

This comes after news in late October that six Chinese social media platforms, including the popular WeChat, enforced a mandate in which content creators with more than 500,000 to 1 million followers must publicly display their real names and any financial backing.

China has recently accelerated many of its initiatives and regulations around emerging technologies, including the development of artificial intelligence, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies. 

It is also working to become less dependent on semiconductor chips made in the United States through boosting domestic production. 

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