Refinitiv Partners with Trulioo to Expand KYC Offering

Refinitiv is partnering with identity verification provider Trulioo to expand its anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (AML/KYC) capabilities.

The move marries Refinitiv’s risk intelligence solutions—World-Check and World-Check One—with Trulioo’s GlobalGateway service, a digital identify verification platform. Trulioo’s offering uses a digital network of 400 procured and vetted data sources from around the globe to provide information on more than 5 billion people for institutions to run identity checks against.

This pairing creates more of a one-stop shop offering for Refinitiv to offer to clients and will better allow it to adjust to changing regulations, globally, as they pertain to AML/KYC. However, a spokesperson for the vendor says it is not yet ready to announce how the services will work together in full production, whether as an add-on offering or integrated into the existing products.

In addition to its data service, Refinitiv’s AML/KYC offering utilizes hundreds of researchers and analysts around the globe, and uses machine learning and natural-language processing to curate content for customers based on queries. Refinitiv officials say that Trulioo’s ability to verify identities on a global basis was the driving factor behind the partnership.

A Growing Threat

The two organizations complement each other’s strengths, James Mirfin, global head of digital identity and financial crime propositions at Refinitiv, tells WatersTechnology.

As firms try to meet their due diligence obligations, he says it’s not only AML and KYC regulations that are hard for financial institutions to keep up with, but it’s also the pace of technological change that is creating challenges.

“If I think about the changing nature of the marketplace, [our customers] are all dealing with a customer base that is increasingly digital in the way they expect products and services to be delivered,” Mirfin says. “When you move away from a more traditional face-to-face engagement model, where you’ve got people walking into branches or working with relationship managers, and you start trying to do everything digitally, it’s very, very difficult.”

More than fighting financial crime, Mirfin says the move can help remedy some of the headaches caused by day-to-day onboarding processes, which can take weeks to complete, and meet more stringent regulatory obligations.

“If you’re a financial services firm today, and you’re choosing a tech provider, the regulators are now expecting you to explain not only what you’re choosing, but why you chose it, and that puts a lot of pressure on them,” says Mirfin.