Deals for Shufti Pro to provide AML checks with selfie biometrics in Nigeria, UAE

Sep 25, 2023, 5:04 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Deals for Shufti Pro to provide AML checks with selfie biometrics in Nigeria, UAE

Capital markets trading fintech Newton Global has selected Shufti Pro to perform know your customer and anti-money laundering screening for users being onboarded to its platform. Shufti Pro will provide selfie biometrics with liveness detection, as well as checks against sanctions, adverse media, politically exposed persons and other important databases for regulatory compliance.

The result, the companies say, is a process which ensures secure onboarding while reducing the time the process takes from days or weeks to seconds or minutes.

Newton Global operates in Nigeria, providing trading solutions for forex, commodities, stocks and indices.

This invites significant risk of identity fraud, however, and the announcement notes that the FBI counts $10.2 billion in identity-related fraud losses in 2022.

“Shufti Pro has bolstered the client onboarding procedures by automating the verification process of a wide variety of documents starting from international passports to local and region-specific identification cards. It allows us to spend less time and effort on verifications, allowing us to focus and specialise on the core activities of our business,” says Shreya Cherian, operations director of Newton Global.

UAE-based investment management group Mascap has also chosen Shufti Pro’s face biometrics and identity verification in an attempt to eliminate fraud from the onboarding process.

Shufti Pro will carry out KYC and AML checks for Mascap, similar to Newton Global, performing risk assessments as well as document and biometric verification.

“A lack of false positives, and a user-friendly dashboard with useful insights help us manage and strategically direct Mascap on the path to success. The ability to create and export clear reports as well as obtaining a bird’s eye view of our database, turned Shufti Pro into one of our most valued tools,” says Elza Iorga, chief compliance officer, Mascap Group.

The Middle East has been a customer growth area for Shufti Pro lately, with legal and business advisory firm Thinc another example from earlier this month.