Credit Suisse has formed a joint venture with big data outfit Palantir that will focus on identifying rogue bankers, according to Bloomberg.
Co-founded by Peter Thiel in 2004, Palantir grew out of the software used by online payment provider PayPal to detect fraudulent transactions. Last year it completed a massive $450 million funding round that values the company at $20 billion.
The 50-50 Signac JV will see Palantir's expertise initially tapped to spot unauthorised trading at Credit Suisse but will eventually be used to cover other employee behaviour. The plan is to then offer the service to other banks.
Credit Suisse compliance chief Lara Warner told Bloomberg that the bank approached Palantir in the wake of the UBS rogue trading scandal in 2011. Kweku Adoboli cost Credit Suisse's Swiss rival $2.3 billion in unauthorised trading.
Led by Credit Suisse's head of compliance in the Americas, Colleen Graham, and Palantir's Sean Hunter, Signac will see the bank's supervisory intelligence staff follow up on alerts generated by Palantir’s software.
The JV is another major win for Palantir, which last year won a five year, $90 million contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission to help the watchdog sniff out insider trading.