Terra and LexisNexis Risk Solutions team-up to risk-proof international transactions
March 15, 2016 -- Terra, a mobile-first international payment network, incubated by Mahindra
Comviva, announced today a strategic collaboration with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a global big data, technology and
analytics company, to protect its network against financial crime and facilitate
secure growth of mobile-powered cross-border transactions.
The globalization of financial markets and the
growing move to digitize remittances have made it easy to move funds to any
corner of the world. With an increase in the volume of activity, there is a
heightened need to safeguard money transfer networks from potential money
laundering and to strengthen compliance.
In the wake of intensifying
regulatory requirements and strict compliance controls, combating money
laundering and fraud represent a major challenge for international money
transfers. Globally, service providers continue to grapple with mounting
complexity and costs of compliance -- resources, time and money -- which, in
turn, raises barriers to entry for new players and impacts growth of existing
players. According to industry estimates risk management and other costs tied
to AML compliance have risen more than 50 percent year-on-year.
Terra interconnects mobile wallet service
providers, banks and remittance companies to build a global network to serve
remittance-dependent households in regions with low banking penetration,
primarily Asia, Africa and Latin America. The ability to implement effective measures
to protect service integrity whilst balancing escalating compliance cost
pressures is crucial to attract partners, achieve rapid scale and drive
adoption of formal remittance products.
International money transfer networks inherently span multiple jurisdictions
and variations in Customer Due Diligence and Know-Your-Customer processes across countries make services susceptible
to misuse. Working with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions provides a robust, first-line of defense to
secure transactions processed over the Terra network. LexisNexis Risk Solutions
deploys state-of-the-art intelligence tools to provide an end-to-end customer screening
service that detects and assesses the compliance and business risks of customers
behind a transaction, as well as monitors counter-parties for risk profile changes.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions delivers actionable information on potentially risky
transactions to enable informed authorization decisioning in real-time. For
example, Terra can proactively block suspicious transactions based on the originator
or the beneficiary’s risk score. By conducting payer and payee risk assessments
on a global scale, participants on the Terra network derive the maximum leverage
of knowledge from different law enforcement and supervisory authorities, which
strengthens domestic monitoring and compliance to build a secure transaction
environment.
Commenting on the
alliance, Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO, Terra said: “Working with LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a market leader in risk management and
compliance services, helps us to conduct business globally with confidence. Terra
derives economic value from the power of establishing global connections
between multiple service providers. The ability to maintain the highest level
of security and deliver a trusted transaction environment is our priority
number one. Terra with LexisNexis Risk Solutions strengthens risk governance by
providing an enhanced layer of protection against potential misuse, and
empowers all scheme participants to meet regulatory requirements whilst
minimizing time, resource and operational costs.”
“We’re honoured to be selected by Terra as its compliance risk
management solutions provider,” said Thomas C. Brown, Senior Vice President, U.S.
Commercial Markets and Global Market Development, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions. “When
working with companies like Terra our goal is to collaborate to ensure that
their risk management processes operate as efficiently as possible. One way we
do that is by creating highly-effective screening procedures that lower
operational costs through false-positive reduction. By way of our WorldCompliance™ solution Terra, and companies like Terra, have
access to global, timely risk coverage.”
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions and Terra are
focusing collective efforts on combating fraud and providing participants on
the Terra network with a secure business environment. A shared resource across
multiple partners encourages consistency and ongoing improvements in the
execution and oversight of core compliance functions. The significant agreement helps LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a company
with a rich history steeped in big data technology and entity screening, to
expand its presence in mobile payments.
With its deep industry knowledge, data, analytics and high-performance
technology, LexisNexis Risk Solutions will provide an uninterrupted customer
experience for Terra partners. Transactions are screened against sanction
sources using a real- time API, which provides a resilient, low-latency
capability for processing high volumes of traffic reliably.
About Terra
Terra, a mobile-first international payment network, has been founded with
the vision to send money to any mobile.
Terra interconnects financial services providers -- mobile wallet service
providers, money transfer operators, banks and payment platforms – to create a
“one network” for secure and seamless transnational movement of funds. The
network facilitates a broad transaction set including interpersonal transfers,
e-payments and government disbursements.
Terra is platform
agnostic and supports standard open APIs for integration with any mobile wallet
provider. Through a single connection, partners gain access to a global payment
network enabling rapid services up-scaling whilst minimizing Opex and Capex
investments. As a fully regulated financial intermediary services network,
Terra offers services beyond principal core transaction, routing and processing
functions and assumes end-to-end responsibility for, regulatory compliance
foreign exchange management and funds settlement.
http://terrapay.com/
About LexisNexis® Risk Solutions
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is a leader in providing essential information
that helps customers across industries and government predict, assess and
manage risk. Combining cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced
analytics, LexisNexis Risk Solutions provides products and services that
address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding the highest
standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis® Risk
Solutions is part of RELX Group
plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional
customers across industries.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/financial/