Refinitiv Completes Purchase Of GIACT For Fraud Prevention Expansion

Finance data and infrastructure-service provider Refinitiv announced Wednesday (Dec. 9) that it’s successfully completed its acquisition of GIACT and has expanded its suite of products for fraud prevention and identity verification.

GIACT works in identity verification, and Refinitiv plans to offer its EPIC platform alongside the company’s own World-Check to give customers comprehensive services to address money laundering risks, prevent monetary loss and look out for payments fraud, the two companies said in a news release.

The firms said that their combination should engender more security for customers and let them perform business tasks more comfortably, addressing the needs of those who require API integrations and those who want more in-depth investigative functions with KYC and client due diligence.

Phil Cotter, managing director of Refinitiv’s risk business, said the hope was to work with GIACT to expand their product offerings.

“GIACT’s real-time payment analytics are a great addition to our existing strength in anti-money laundering and digital identity verification,” he said, according to the release. “We now have a more holistic platform to help customers tackle new and emerging fraud threats, accelerated by the economic downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Melissa Townsley-Solis, co-founder and CEO at GIACT, added that “we’re excited about the opportunities as we bring our capabilities and expertise of our teams together. Refinitiv has a clear strategic vision for GIACT and our customers can look forward to hearing more as we turn that vision into a reality.”

Townsley-Solis told Karen Webster in a recent interview that fraud-fighting solutions haven’t been keeping up with the ultra-fast speed of digitizing that’s gone on since the pandemic began and consumers moved many daily processes online.

Townsley-Solis and James Mirfin, head of digital identity and financial crime at Refinitiv, said companies usually used piecemeal solutions to solve anti-money laundering issues, but that numerous seams in the process made it more difficult to catch everything. To that end, a single end-to-end solution would be preferable, they said.