Financial crime detection technology company, ThetaRay, has acquired screening specialist, Screena. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the companies have been partners since the spring of 2022.
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015.
AI-powered financial crime detection technology company, ThetaRay, has acquired European screening company, Screena. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Screena specializes in screening individuals, companies, and other entities against sanctioned party lists. The company’s APIs support syntactic, phonetic, and semantic matching, as well as multicultural recognition services. Each of these technologies is valuable at a time when more companies and financial institutions are taking advantage of opportunities in cross-border payments and trade.
From navigating spelling differences and out-of-order components to comprehending multiple alphabets including Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, and Thai, Screena has a near 100% true detection rate and screens 500+ transactions per second in live conditions. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Luxembourg, Screena helps financial institutions identify bad actors who may be engaged in activities ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking to terrorist financing.
Screena CEO Cédric Iggiotti said that the integration with ThetaRay was a “game-changer” for the company. “For too long, screening was siloed from other critical financial crime detection tools,” Iggiotti said. “Our partnership with ThetaRay not only meets stringent regulatory demands but also significantly enhances our crime detection capabilities, as evidenced by our recent successes with major financial institutions.”
ThetaRay and Screena have been partners since the spring of 2022, when ThetaRay chose the startup as its screening solutions partner. In a statement on this week’s acquisition, ThetaRay CEO Peter Reynolds spoke of the company’s “mission to power the global fight against financial crime” through the use of AI-enabled technologies. He added that the acquisition “furthers our commitment to delivering an end-to-end platform that enables banks, fintechs, and regulators to effectively identify financial crime – vital capabilities to grow and operate a financial institution today.”
Israel-based ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. Today, the company has more than one billion users, enables more than 11 billion in trusted transactions a year, and monitors more than $15 trillion in transactions annually. The company’s signature offerings include its transaction monitoring and screening solution, SONAR, as well as its Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) product unveiled earlier this year.
Reynolds was named CEO of the company last summer. He succeeds Mark Gazit, who had been ThetaRay’s CEO for more than 11 years.
Photo by Kasia Derenda on Unsplash
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Conclusion:
As the financial industry continues to evolve, the need for robust financial crime detection technologies becomes even more critical. The acquisition of Screena by ThetaRay underscores the importance of innovative solutions in combating illicit activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and other forms of financial crime.
This partnership not only enhances the capabilities of both companies but also sets a new standard for screening and detection in the financial sector. With a focus on leveraging AI-powered technologies, ThetaRay and Screena are well-positioned to provide the tools necessary for financial institutions to stay ahead of criminals and comply with regulatory requirements.
With the rapid growth of cross-border transactions and the increasing complexity of financial operations, the need for efficient screening solutions is more apparent than ever. By joining forces, ThetaRay and Screena are poised to deliver cutting-edge technologies that drive the global fight against financial crime.
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