The world’s largest money transfer company, Western Union, recently agreed to pay US$586 million to settle charges that its anti-money laundering (AML) controls were inadequate, enabling millions of dollars of prohibited transactions to be completed. This isn’t an isolated case. Many businesses across the globe have been unintentionally caught up in AML fiascos, risking their reputations, and perhaps more importantly, their bottom line.
Being on the wrong side of AML bureaucracy is difficult to deal with for any business, but it can be especially detrimental to small business who generally do not have the resources to monitor, let alone minimise, the effects of being caught up in such events. As such, to ensure our members have access to a secure and efficient trading platform — not to mention peace of mind — we adopt vigorous processes when onboarding new members to the Octet platform.
Each member in the Octet community is carefully and extensively vetted to meet the internationally accepted standard of AML procedures. These include, but are not limited to:
- Employing KYC checks: Performing Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to establish the identity of the directors and shareholders of each Octet Member Company confirms your buyer or supplier is who they say they are. KYC procedures are a critical function to assess and monitor customer risk.
- Validating beneficiaries: Applying due diligence to validate all beneficiary accounts is extremely important, but is often overlooked if the transaction process takes place manually. We verify that beneficiaries’ bank account details are indeed those of the Octet Member Company, ensuring funds are going where they need to go.
- Capturing transaction history: Octet ensures transaction documentation conforms to the accepted international standard. We also provide full visibility on the entire history of the transaction, available for you to look back on at any time.
By confirming the credentials of each Octet Member Company, our members are able to trade with the comfort of knowing that the identity of their trading partners has been independently validated by a team of experts.
Octet is built on transparency and security — we ensure data and transactions are kept safe through anti-fraud security systems, which are backed by global bank standards.
We believe effective AML isn’t only a moral obligation, but an economic need essential to protecting the integrity of markets and the global financial framework. So it’s somewhat concerning that global accounting firm, PwC, found more than 25 per cent of financial services firms have not conducted AML risk assessments across their global footprint.
Due diligence in our industry is crucial when it comes to fighting fraud, and essentially crime, through money laundering. At Octet, we understand the importance of having a comprehensive compliance program in place and are continually taking necessary steps to ensure we meet and exceed the high standard for AML procedures — so that our members can conduct efficient trade transactions with peace of mind.
