2,500th client signs up to leading open source intelligence database

London (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - World-Check, the global industry pioneer and leading provider of highly-structured open source risk intelligence, is proud to announce that it recently celebrated its 2,500th client sign-up(1). On an annual basis 19 million names(2) are manually queried by our client base in 153 countries within World-Check Online, while many millions more are automatically screened against the World-Check Data-file.

Founded in late 2000, World-Check was originally created to address the Swiss financial industry's Know Your Customer (KYC) and risk-reduction requirements. Today, World-Check's database is relied upon by 47 of the world's 50 largest financial institutions and more than 200 regulatory and enforcement agencies across the globe, including 70% of the Egmont Group's Financial Intelligence Units. Clients also include businesses in the insurance, legal, gaming, aviation, real estate, consultancy, natural resources and accounting sectors, to name but a few.

World-Check's unique database includes profiles of known money launderers, fraudsters, Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), terrorists, narcotics traffickers, shell banks, sanctioned entities and many other categories of high risk individuals and entities. Positioned at the forefront of international risk research and intelligence, World-Check regularly profiles heightened risk individuals and businesses years before their names appear on official sanction lists, making the database the ultimate "early warning system" against regulatory and reputation risk. This reliability is testament to the company's ongoing investment in technology and its strategically placed international team of multilingual researchers.

"We are extremely excited about our exceptional growth in such a short period of time, and are committed to continuedinvestment in innovative solutions, research specialists and value-added services based on our client needs," said David Leppan, CEO and founder of World-Check. "World-Check has played a critical role as the industry leader in the AML, KYC and CTF fields, and our continued client and partner growth confirms that we lead the market. In addition our 97% annual client renewal rate for the past seven years confirms that our database is unparalleled in depth, reliability and coverage."

ABOUT WORLD-CHECK

World-Check provides its global open source intelligence database to more than 2500 institutions in 153 countries, including 47 of the world's 50 largest financial institutions, and 200+ enforcement and regulatory agencies in 90 countries.
The database is updated daily in real-time by World-Check's international research team, and is derived from hundreds of thousands of public sources. Coverage includes Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), money launderers, fraudsters, terrorists and sanctioned entities -- plus individuals and businesses from over a dozen other high-risk categories.

World-Check's database and tools find direct application in financial compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), Know-Your-Customer (KYC), PEP screening, enhanced due diligence (EDD), fraud prevention, government intelligence and other identity authentication, background screening and risk-prevention practices.
For more information about World-Check go to http://www.world-check.com

(1) This number reflects actual institutions and not their branch or subsidiary networks.
(2) World-Check, as certified by KPMG, is unaware of the actual names (search terms) clients search for within World-Check.

SOURCE: World-Check
CONTACT: Marion Willson,
World-Check,
+44-20-8099-7263,
mw2@world-check.com
Web site: http://www.world-check.com

COPYRIGHT © 2008 - ANTARANEWS

Enterprise Wide Financial Crime Management becomes mainstream

Leading Financial Service Providers are Embracing an Enterprise Wide Risk Based Approach to Financial Crime Management, Says Datamonitor & Norkom More than half of all major global financial service providers have consolidated AML and fraud prevention across the enterprise Almost half have centralised management structures by establishing Financial Intelligence Units Risk-based approach and customer due diligence are the new priorities

Sydney (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) - New research, carried out by Datamonitor on behalf of Norkom Technologies, confirms that a radical change has taken place in the way financial services providers manage regulatory compliance and financial crime. Our respondents -- senior decision makers in global financial services institutions -- are combining their management of both activities on an enterprise wide basis. This change was predicted by the same research programme one year ago, though at that stage, only an enlightened minority had begun the consolidation process.
Today's research makes it clear that enterprise wide management is now a firmly established business approach.

Almost three quarters (73%) of respondents -- leaders in global tier one institutions -- confirm that they are managing anti-money laundering (AML) in tandem with other types of financial crime. More than half (53%) have achieved this on an enterprise wide basis, embracing all geographies and business lines.

20% are progressing towards this goal, having achieved it in some territories.
47% of respondents say they have established Financial Intelligence Units in order to overcome the organisational barriers traditionally associated with enterprise wise management and to centrally manage investigative resources. A further 14% plan to do so within the next 12 to 24 months.

"As we predicted, enterprise wide financial crime management is now a reality in most major financial institutions, with those organisations seeing significant improvements in detection rates and cost reductions as a result," says Norkom's CEO, Paul Kerley.

"Organisations are now focusing their attention on successfully adopting a risk based approach -- not just for AML as the regulator requires -- but for all areas of financial crime. And they expect these two new priorities to deliver even greater business benefits."

87% of institutions report that they have experienced or expect to experience improvements in crime detection capability as a result of their enterprise wide approach; 80% say they've experienced or expect cost savings.

But 93% agree that the business benefits of a risk based approach to customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring will be even greater.

"A risk based approach -- in which the extent of monitoring attention given to an individual account or customer is directly commensurate with the degree of business risk they pose -- is now a regulatory requirement within AML," explains Kerley. "But far sighted organisations have recognised the potential for commercial benefit, too, and will extend this approach to all areas of financial crime. Costs will reduce as detection accuracy and investigative efficiency improves.

Customer responsiveness will also rise, since low risk new business will be able to be brought onto book more quickly."

To obtain your copy of the research report: 'Securing the Future Against Financial Crime: Enterprise wide management and beyond' email marketing@norkom.com

Norkom is a market-leading provider of innovative financial crime and compliance solutions to the global financial services industry.

Used by clients in over 100 countries, including HSBC, Credit Agricole, Fortis, Rabobank, and Washington Mutual, Norkom is proven to reduce financial losses, protect reputation, improve operational efficiencies and lower total cost of ownership. Norkom has operations across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

Norkom media contact:
Hilary Duffy,
Marketing Manager,
Norkom Technologies,
Tel: +353-85-121-9414
hilary.duffy@norkom.com
http://www.norkom.com
CONTACT: Hilary Duffy,
Marketing Manager of Norkom Technologies,
+353-85-121-9414,
hilary.duffy@norkom.com Web site: http://www.norkom.com
SOURCE: Norkom

COPYRIGHT © 2008 - ANTARANEWS