What you need to know about KYK, page-2

Hi @Snake26 thanks for sharing that
I found your other useful post from 19/09/19 [here].

One of the things you draw attention to in that one is ... “There are several HUGE players already in this space - D&B, VEDA/ Equifax, FICO & Experian, Experian in particular is very good at this because they sell end to end solution (i.e you get a full CRM to implement off the shelf into what are usually pretty poor legacy systems in these organisations).”
Another competitor -noted in the media report in the spoiler below - is Kompany.



-Do you know, please, whether Kyckr has any clear points of difference with these companies?
-Or what might have inspired Richard White to buy almost 20%?
S$tockhead last year reported [here] him saying he saw in Kyckr .... “ a product, business and opportunity set that can be leveraged and accelerated to major advantage,”
...I think I read somewhere that he saw potential to expand beyind its’ current niche too.
Something must have caught his eye?

- Also do you know which reg tech company or companies the Australian banks currently use?

I was wondering if yesterday’s news damning news on Westpac may have created some of that keen buying interest here?

https://www.afr. com/companies/financial-services/westpac-admits-23m-anti-moneylaundering-breaches-20200515-p54ta9;​

“Westpac admits 23m anti-money laundering breaches​

James FrostFinancial Services Writer May 15, 2020​

​

.......Westpac has admitted it broke the law 23 million times and could have kept a closer watch on a dozen customers the regulator suspected were paedophiles.​

In a document filed in Federal Court on Friday afternoon, the bank also admitted its reporting and record keeping of international transactions were not good enough and accepted that many millions of reports had been deleted, filed years late or, in some cases, not filed at all.​

But the bank denied it did not have a compliant Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Program in place, rejecting the allegation it broke the law every time it performed a transaction, saying its model was ticked off by the regulator and external consultants.​

A spokesman for the bank said it would continue to work closely with AUSTRAC, the financial intelligence regulator, to find common ground over the matter....”​

The Australian also referred to those (Regtech?) “technology glitches”;

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...s/news-story/070aec585a74358da0aad2667afe5bc9 May 15, 2020​

.....“Westpac has made important admissions in Austrac’s mega-money laundering case against the big four bank, but will contest some of the financial intelligence agency’s key allegations as the two parties strive to reach a full commercial settlement.​

The bank’s long-awaited defence document, filed with the Federal Court on Friday, threw in the towel on the lion’s share of its 23m alleged transgressions, admitting it failed to give Austrac a report on each of the 19.4m international funds transfer instructions within 10 business days.​

The IFTIs, worth more than $11bn, were transmitted to Australia between November 2013 and September 2018, with Westpac blaming technology glitches, programming errors and system upgrades for its serial non-compliance.”... etc​

So I am curious if  these problems would  have still arisen with Kyckr screening customers or transacions (or whatever it does?)?


When Ian Henderson (former chief of RBS International and operating boss at Barclays Wealth), started as CEO in January, 2019, the issues with Australian banks were already a hot topic and his comment on this problem was Australian banks were good at completing requisite checks ... “when onboarding a customer for the first time, but often dropped the ball on revisiting the information.
“I don’t think many banks are doing it well anywhere across the world,” he said, noting that some banks relied on data that was five years old.”

For anyone interested, there’s a bit more background on Kyckr in the spoiler below in the form of a report from The Australian dated June last year, including that comment.

Spoiler : Interview with Ian Henderson

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...s/news-story/787123841cb0c2b8d81297252f7af411
Kyckr helps to sink the boot into money launderers


Kyckr’s Ian Henderson.
JOYCE MOULLAKIS

• SENIOR BANKING REPORTER
  

12:00AM JUNE 3, 2019

Australia has strengthened its approach to fighting money laundering and terrorism financing, but more needs to be done by regulators and banks to stop a flight by criminals to the “weakest link”.
That is the view of Ian Henderson, chief executive of listed regulatory technology group Kyckr, who says the public often don’t hear about the scale of criminal attempts to circumvent monitoring systems.
He said while Australia had historically lagged the European Union and other markets on anti-money laundering legislation, regulators had upped their efforts more recently.

“The global nature of finance means there is a trend to alignment,” Mr Henderson said. “There is always a flight to the weakest link … they (criminals) throw the net wide.”
Kyckr — which counts Bloomberg, IBM and Citigroup among its customers — uses technology to help companies protect against fraud and money laundering by providing real-time registry information on businesses from organisations such as the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
Locally, the banks have been in the spotlight over the past two years due to a lax approach to meeting their anti-money laundering obligations.

The Commonwealth Bank last year agreed to pay $700 million to settle a matter brought by Austrac over serious breaches of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws. At the time, the payment was the largest civil penalty in Australia’s corporate history. Rivals including NAB and Westpac have also admitted to shortcomings.
NAB last year said it was working with Austrac and foreign regulators to fix weaknesses in its money-laundering compliance system. That was after it identified issues including about 8140 instances over five years where know-your-customer checks were not completed.

Westpac is working with the regulator over a failure to report a large number of international fund transfer instructions made through its institutional bank on behalf of clients of some correspondent banks.

Mr Henderson said Australia’s banks — like some of their global counterparts — were good at completing the requisite checks when onboarding a customer for the first time, but often dropped the ball on revisiting the information.
“I don’t think many banks are doing it well anywhere across the world,” he said, noting that some banks relied on data that was five years old.

In November, Austrac said transnational serious and organised crime was estimated to cost Australians up to $47.4 billion annually.
Collaboration between domestic banks has, however, increased via the Fintel Alliance, created two years ago with funding from Austrac and the major banks to improve the sharing of security threat information.

Kyckr helps banks and other companies meet their Know your Client and anti-money laundering obligations through a global network of 200 company registry connections spanning 120 countries and 170 million corporate entities.
The company competes with Austria-based Kompany and other providers that typically focus on links to local registries.

But Kyckr has had a tough three years as a listed company.

Mr Henderson started in the top job in January. He is the former chief of RBS International and operating boss at Barclays Wealth.
Benny Higgins, the former chief of Tesco Bank, took the reins as Kyckr chairman in March last year from HBF boss John Van Der Wielen.

After Kyckr unveiled a new digital platform to improve customer verification last month, Mr Henderson believes the company is now well placed to ramp up its strategy across registry access and partnerships. “We are now starting to see traction on both,” Mr Henderson said.

He is executing a three-year strategic plan and the company expects to reach break-even in 12 to 18 months.
While Kyckr’s shares reached highs of 32 cents in January the stock closed at 4.3 cents on Friday. The company listed on the ASX in 2016 at an initial public offering price of 20 cents.

cheers