Lehi— Leading anti-money laundering (AML) and ID fraud specialist SmartSearch US is launching enhanced protection for businesses, in light of the latest AML legislation to pass through Congress on January 1st.

The RegTech experts say its digital fraud checks with data referencing and triangulation will give firms the confidence that they are compliant with the new raft of AML regulation, as well as protecting against potential fraud.

Chad Rawlings, national sales director at SmartSearch US, says the enhancements have been made in response to the rising threat of money laundering and financial fraud due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

He said: “At the start of this year some of the most significant anti-money laundering legislation was introduced in the country. At SmartSearch we’re in a position to be able to import the most cutting-edge technological solutions to comply with that legislation from SmartSearch in the UK, which is the most heavily regulated country in the world.

“We have the solution now to ensure businesses in the US can be ready for the new law and it makes compliance simple."

The SmartSearch platform makes use of various digital elements (DEs) such as mobile phone numbers, email and IP addresses, to create robust and easy-to-understand fraud risk indicators and deliver an overall risk score. A dashboard provides detailed information to support additional due diligence, enabling further investigation of high-risk events.

The SmartSearch technology then ‘triangulates’ this information, matching the DEs to the individual’s terrestrial address and enabling the CRA data, ID document, and life liveness video imaging to be bound together to create a unique Composite Digital Identity (CDI).

Rawlings adds: “We’ve seen several high-profile cases including the FinCEN leaks in September last year which shone a light on the sheer scale of money laundering by criminals exploiting the global banking system.

“That’s why at SmartSearch US we’ve developed and enhanced our AML solution, not only to respond to the growing threat but to stay one step ahead.

“We are now able to place the most sophisticated technology on the market in the hands of law firms, accountants and real estate agents, to make quick and simple checks that protects them against money laundering.

“By combining the three sophisticated verification processes into one powerful tool, namely ID, sanction & PEP checks, document and facial recognition and digital fraud checks, we have created the most powerful, robust and reliable all-in-one AML platform on the market."

About SmartSearch

SmartSearch is a leading UK provider of anti-money-laundering software. Its anti-money-laundering verification platform conducts individual and business searches, both for the UK and international markets with automatic worldwide sanction and PEP screening.

It is the only organisation in the UK with the ability to verify individuals and companies in the UK and internationally all in a single platform via a browser or API, with full Sanction, PEP and adverse media screening, and then ongoing monitoring.

Headquartered in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, SmartSearch‘s very latest technology delivers an unrivalled user experience to over 4,500 client firms and 40,000 users, enabling them to comply with the latest AML regulations and fulfil their AML, Customer Due Diligence (CDD), and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance obligations.

With no requirement for clients to provide identity documents, SmartSearch‘s automated verification approach is significantly more convenient for both users and their end customers, with individual AML checks taking two seconds from start to finish, while business checks take less than three minutes.