Circle, a Blockchain startup backed by Goldman Sachs, today announced a partnership with NICE Actimize, a New York-based provider of financial crime, risk and compliance solutions across several asset classes.
The NICE Actimize’s markets surveillance product will allow the cryptocurrency exchange to distinguish suspicious patterns in real time and obtain law enforcement information. The company’s offering also includes "machine-led detection, decisioning and self-learning capabilities" that can adapt and scale to meet the needs of crypto-related operations.
Actimize’s compliance software can help both crypto firms and law enforcement agencies detect suspicious activity in order to battle any related criminal activity. It uses pattern recognition, algorithms and millions of open source references to identify and categorize thousands of cryptocurrency services to raise live alerts on transactions involved in suspicious activity.
Global concerns and absence of coherent direction
NICE Actimize has a few rivals in the market whose solutions strive to prevent, detect and investigate cryptocurrency money laundering, fraud, and compliance violations. The biggest competitor, though, is the UK-based Elliptic which offers a proprietary compliance and fraud detection technology.
In addition, Nasdaq Inc’s SMARTS trade surveillance technology, which monitors real-time trading activity and raises alerts with the exchange if it discovers unusual trading activity, is now employed by seven cryptocurrency exchanges.
The concerns over cryptocurrency mining, trading, and usage to transfer money are already shared by several governments across the globe.
Of note, the cryptocurrency industry has recently seen several hires from mainstream finance firms in order to respond to the recent calls to regulate the nascent business. Several regulators now require the operators of such venues to perform the same level of client due diligence as banks.
Commenting on the news, Circle’s Chief Compliance Officer Robert Benchsaid: “Circle has adopted a strong position on policy and crypto-related regulatory issues that focuses on the safety of our customers and investors. Adapting innovative technology solutions, such as the financial markets compliance solutions from NICE Actimize, to meeting the potential needs of regulators and protecting our assets brings this commitment full circle.”
“As we lead the digital financial services industry with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, NICE Actimize will continue to innovate on behalf of the newest financial product categories, including Cryptocurrencies , digital wallets, and more,” added Craig Costigan, CEO of NICE Actimize.
