Experian has launched an online system designed to help UK financial services providers identify potential money launderers.
E-identity is an online scoring-based consumer identification system that enables financial service providers, in real-time, to authenticate the identity of the consumer prior to opening a bank account or selling them a financial product. The service removes the need for current manual paper-based methods of identification such as presenting passports, driving licences or utility bills, says Experian.
The solution also meets new Money Laundering Guidelines requiring financial institutions to adopt a risk-based approach to customer identification, dependent on the level of money laundering risk within both the product and channel of introduction.
The identification system is already in use in the retail credit sector where it achieves a higher than 90 per cent success rate in identifying fraudsters, says Experian.
Richard Fiddis, chief operating officer at Experian, says: "e-Identity as a solution for money laundering provides financial organisations with a scientific proven solution to the problem of consumer verification to enable them to quickly identify possible money laundering attempts, while offering a fast track online approval service to their genuine customers."
According to estimates by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), money laundering could be worth anywhere between $590 billion and $1.5 trillion worldwide and is considered a major threat to global economic stability. In the UK, the problem is thought to be worth as much as 2% of GDP.