Shufti Pro Announces Three Major Appointments as the Company Secures $20 Million Series A Funding

Richard Marley
March 29, 2022
3 minutes read
6412

Originally Published on PR Log.

London, UK – March 29, 2022 – A global IDV provider, Shufti Pro announced the addition of Graeme Rowe as CMO. The company also declared the appointment of Partick Kelly and Christian Wheeler as Head of Sales Americas and Europe respectively.

Rowe is an international marketing leader with proven skills in B2B start-ups including Nimble Storage (IPO), IronPort (acquired by Cisco), and Pindrop. He has experience in marketing across the US, Europe, Africa, APAC, Middle East, and Latam.

“I am thrilled to join a true IDV innovator and further assist Shufti Pro’s mission to make businesses a safer place. I am looking forward to working with the company’s ever-growing network of customers and partners,” Rowe said.

Patrick Kelly, appointed as Head of Sales Americas, owns a strong background in mobile digital identity, fraud prevention, and multimodal biometrics. With his 25+ years of executive management and leadership experience, Kelly is a perfect fit for Shufti Pro.

“There are many partners and customers who are excited about Shufti Pro’s trajectory as it sets the course for better ID proofing,” Kelly said. “I’m glad to be working with its team as the company continues to grow.”

Shufti Pro’s other appointment is Christian Wheeler, who has joined the company as Head of Sales Europe. He has two decades of experience in the banking industry across multiple regions.

“Given Shufti Pro’s long-standing reputation as one of the market leaders in AI-based ID verification and its recent landmark funding, I’m excited to join the team to help drive ground-breaking innovation to this emerging space,” said Wheeler.

“I am proud to welcome Graeme, Patrick, and Christian to the team. It’s because of Shufti Pro’s position as a leader in the digital ID market that we’re able to attract top-calibre talent across all functions, from sales and marketing to technology, and customer experience,” said Victor Fredung, CEO of Shufti Pro. “I believe the vast experience of Graeme, Patrick, and Christian will be irreplaceable to Shufti Pro as we accelerate our growth strategy.”

About Shufti Pro

Shufti Pro offers KYC, KYB, and AML services to help global businesses onboard legitimate customers. UK-based company has 5 regional offices and launched 17 different IDV products since its inception in 2017. With the ability to verify 1000s of ID documents in 150+ languages, Shufti Pro is serving customers in 230+ countries and territories.

For more information,

Damien Martin
Marketing Executive | Shufti Pro
damien.martin@shuftipro.com
+44 1225290329

Disclaimer: No warranty is herein provided that the information contained in this document is accurate, up-to-date, and/or complete. In no circumstance(s), does such information constitute legal or any other advice. Any person who intends to use, rely, pass-on, or re-publish the information contained herein in any way is solely responsible for the same. We suggest to verify the information and/or obtain expert advice independently if required.

Latest News

News
MBSB Bank to Implement BNM's Requirements for Combating Financial Crimes
About Shufti Pro
Bank Negara Malaysia announced additional security measures for financial institutions to strengthen their systems and migrate from SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) to more secure authentication forms against financial crimes, especially online ones.

MBSB Bank has been instructed to follow the latest security protocols announced by BNM, Bank Negara Malaysia, to fight financial crimes, especially those that target online transactions.

According to the chief executive officer of MBSB Bank, Datuk Nor Azam M. Taib, despite having security concerns, financial institutions must act upon the instructed measures to curb scams and protect customers.

On Sep 27, 23 participants received certificates of completing GRAP, Entrepreneurship Assistance Programme by Nor Azam. He said, “There are no two ways about it. We will follow what is required by BNM.”

On Monday, BNM instructed financial institutions to change their SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) verification method and adopt more robust authentication ways to provide a secure online activity system. Furthermore, strict fraud detection rules and triggers are needed to block suspected scam transactions.

Restricting customers to one secure device for the process of verification will help in security assurance. The financial industry will receive security advisories highlighting the latest scamming techniques.

Nor Azam is positive about MBSB’s outlook for this year. According to the chief executive officer, “Our third quarter is doing much better than the first half of the year, and we think the fourth quarter will too. However, for next year, we are not sure how long growth will be sustained because as a small economy, we (Malaysia) will depend on our surrounding environment, which may not be that stable.”

On the Entrepreneurship Assistance Programme initiative, Nor Azam said that the financial institution is planning high-level training for participants. Including different aspects, such as product marketing on e-commerce platforms, the training will help businesses expand their capabilities and grow exponentially.

With 80% of single mothers, most of the participants who received GRAP certificates were PPR Desa Rejang in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur’s residents.

From February to August 2022, a seven-month training program was arranged for participants. This program covered subjects like emotional well-being, creative mind, sales and marketing, accounting methods, etc.

Islamic Relief Malaysia collaborated with the GRAP program. Nor Azam said that participants managed to increase by more than 95% in monthly income.

Suggested Read: Danske Bank Fined €1.82m Over AML and CTF Breaches

Recent Posts

Blog
Improving Identity Verification Processes Through Perpetual KYC - How Shufti Pro Helps the Banking Sector
About Shufti Pro
Banks are considered a subset of the financial services industry and play the most crucial role in global economies. Banks mobilize the deposits from households and spread them across the countries, making the funds available for investments. Due to the high influx of money into this sector, criminals have started exploiting the loopholes resulting in several crimes, particularly identity theft, money laundering, and terrorist financing. It is quite crucial for all financial institutions particularly banks to implement a robust system of customer verification to counter prevailing scams.

In US alone, illicit bank transfers or payment fraud resulted in financial losses amounting to $756 million in 2021. Although the whole banking sector has implemented stringent measures to curb financial scams, they are still common, and the overall rate is increasing every year. It has become mandatory for banking organizations to evolve the contemporary Know Your Verification (KYC) measures and implement them in an advanced way to counter the sophisticated techniques of criminals. Perpetual KYC, commonly known as P-KYC, is one of the effective solutions that has the capacity to revolutionize banks’ scrutiny systems and execute customer verification through a modern approach.

An Overview of Perpetual KYC

All financial organizations like banks, insurance companies, and crypto exchanges use a variety of KYC measures to verify the true identities of their users. It is generally performed in order to understand who the business is interacting with. The majority of digital businesses generally verify their client and customers at the start of business while keeping a record of their personal details like name, ID number, social security, address, etc. Perpetual KYC takes this further by introducing a process that keeps on verifying customers continuously, monitors their transactions, and puts different strategies in place to report any suspicious activity.

Perpetual KYC just differs from regular KYC in the way that it keeps on regulating the users’ data and serves its purposes in a more advanced way. All the financial companies in search of better security, improved transparency, and secure customer relationships are using P-KYC. It is not only beneficial for digital businesses but also ensures the safety of users’ identities and assets. In this way, financial service providers can react to any suspicious activity quickly and take strict action to halt it.

The Need for Perpetual KYC in Banking Sector

The banking sector is thought to be the backbone of any country’s economy, and due to rising crime cases, it is in dire need of an effective and constant customer due diligence system. It is estimated that the market capitalization of the global banking sector was 7.3 trillion euros in the second quarter of 2022, which highlights the importance of perpetual KYC. The banks have billion of customers globally and due to rising cases of money laundering and terrorist financing, it has become mandatory to keep a strict check on all the transactions.

In traditional KYC checks, illegal activities of criminals can go unnoticed for years resulting in a lot of financial damage. On the other hand, perpetual KYC measures are efficient enough to track illicit activities in real time and inform the authorities about them. Implementing P-KYC measures can help the banks improve customer relationships by providing them with security from several scams including account takeovers, identity theft, and other financial losses. It will also help the banking organizations to comply with the local and global KYC regulations by countering money launderers and terrorist financiers.

Recent Crime Cases in the Banking Industry

The banking sector has always remained a prime target of financial criminals due to its exposure to huge investments and funds. Criminals use a variety of advanced techniques to carry out money laundering inflicting a myriad of damages on the overall economic system. Several cases have been witnessed in the recent past where criminals were charged with committing bank fraud.

Criminal Gang in US Charged with Bank Fraud and Money Laundering

US law enforcement authorities recently arrested a gang of 11 members who were involved in bank fraud and money laundering. All the criminals have been charged in court, and investigations have found that they were involved in payment fraud of more than $9 million, which was sent to other countries through money laundering. The scammers were using fake identities of 50 different users to commit fraud. Court has ordered to carry on the investigations and found more transactions related to the case.

Two Former Employees of Major Bank Charged with Loan Fraud

The Police arrested two former employees who were found to be involved in defrauding the major bank with millions of dollars in federal loan funds. The criminals used wire fraud techniques to obtain loans of more than $3 million from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Coronavirus aid. A judge ordered the Police to move further with the investigation and decide the penalties for the culprits.

Global Regulatory Authorities Monitoring the Banking Sector

All the global regulatory authorities, including Financial Action Task Force (FATF), European Union (EU), and Interpol, have highlighted the vulnerabilities of the banking sector to financial crimes. FATF has issued detailed guidelines for implementing effective KYC solutions to counter money launderers and scammers.

US

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the primary body that monitors prevailing suspicious activities in the banking sector. It is working under the guidelines of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) which makes it crucial for banks to keep a strict check on their customers and verify their true identities. BSA has also highlighted the need for a system that keeps continuous checks on all financial transactions and reports to law enforcement authorities in case of any violation.

UK

The Fraud Act 2006 is the primary legislation in the UK which permits all banks to verify the true identities of their users and keep a record of all details. This act also suggests punishment for criminals involved in bank fraud which could go up to 10 years of imprisonment and hefty fines. In the recent past, UK law enforcement agencies have convicted a large number of criminals under this act and put them behind bars.

Securing Banking Organizations Through Perpetual KYC

With rapid digitization, the use of digital banking has increased, posing considerable threats of identity theft and financial scams. By using fake identities, criminals onboard the system and exploit loopholes resulting in money laundering and terrorist financing. Although traditional KYC checks are quite effective against fraud, they are not efficient enough to trace all suspicious activities by scammers. Perpetual KYC is a viable option for banking organizations to keep a continuous check on all of their users while monitoring financial transactions and reporting to relevant agencies in case of any fraudulent activity. Through perpetual KYC checks, banks will not only be able to curb identity theft but will also help in securing the business-customer relationship.

What Shufti Pro Offers?

Shufti Pro offers state-of-the-art identity verification services that can help the banking sector to counter criminals and comply with global regulations as well. The perpetual KYC services offered by Shufti Pro will help the banks strictly check all customers’ activities and monitor their transactions in real time. Powered by thousands of AI algorithms, it is efficient enough to generate output in less than a second with 98.67% accuracy.

Want to know more about Perpetual KYC services for the banking sector?

Talk to us

Shufti Pro Announces Three Major Appointments as the Company Secures $20 Million Series A Funding

About Shufti Pro

An Overview of Perpetual KYC

The Need for Perpetual KYC in Banking Sector

Recent Crime Cases in the Banking Industry

Criminal Gang in US Charged with Bank Fraud and Money Laundering

Two Former Employees of Major Bank Charged with Loan Fraud

Global Regulatory Authorities Monitoring the Banking Sector

US

UK

Securing Banking Organizations Through Perpetual KYC

What Shufti Pro Offers?

Let’s prove your

customer’s identity

with Shuftipro.

Let’s prove your customer’s

identity with Shuftipro.