Swift boosts compliance services portfolio with Omnicision acquisition

March 27, 2014 - Swift has acquired financial crime prevention services firm Omnicision as it continues to build up its compliance unit. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the deal, Swift grabs UK-based Omnicision's sanctions testing product as well as financial crimes prevention experts focused on anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer.

Swift has been making an aggressive move into the compliance arena, recently setting up a dedicated unit and outlining plans for a global KYC Registry, a centralised utility for the collection and distribution of standard information required by banks as part of their due diligence processes.

Earlier this month Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Commerzbank, JPMorgan, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered all committed to work together with Swift to build the service.

Yawar Shah, chairman, Swift, says: "The Omnicision acquisition marks another key milestone in the expansion of Swift's compliance services strategy, and demonstrates our commitment to making the necessary investment to address the community's needs in this critical area."

Swift isn't the only one making a KYC utility play. Thomson Reuters this month unveiled Accelus Org ID while Switzerland-based KYC Exchange has also launched a Web-based communication platform.