Moody’s Acquires Two European KYC Firms

Moody’s Corporation is acquiring two European companies in a bid to enhance its Know Your Customer (KYC) capabilities.

The company announced in a news release Friday (Dec. 3) it had acquired the U.K.’s PassFort Limited and entered into an agreement to acquire kompany out of Austria.

“Our customers rely on our data and analytical tools to make decisions about who they do business with,” said Keith Berry, general manager of Moody’s KYC business unit. “PassFort and kompany are innovators in the compliance and regulatory space, and their technologies will upgrade and accelerate our customers’ onboarding and monitoring processes.”

PassFort is a Software-as-a-Service-based workflow platform for customer onboarding, identity verification and risk analysis, with software that delivers data from more than 25 third-party providers. The software automates collection, verification and storage of customer and supplier due diligence documentation.

“The integration of PassFort’s platform into Moody’s suite of KYC and compliance offerings will create a more holistic workflow solution, allowing customers to incorporate Moody’s data, including credit, cyber, ESG and climate analytics, directly into their proprietary processes,” the company said.

Based in Vienna, kompany’s platform provides audit-proof business verification and KYC, and will allow Moody customers to carry out real-time shareholder analysis and entity verification, while also retrieving original company filings and documents to meet regulatory demands.

“The acquisition of PassFort and planned acquisition of kompany follow Moody’s recent investments in KYC capabilities,” the news release says. “Moody’s will integrate both companies into its KYC business within Moody’s Analytics, where they will augment the Orbis company database and the GRID database of risk profiles, adverse news, politically exposed persons, and sanctions.”

Read more: Digital Economy Sees Rise in Number of Fake Businesses

The acquisitions come at a time when many companies are scrambling for KYC and anti-money laundering solutions, driven by new regulations and a rise in fraud involving fake businesses, as PYMNTS reported recently.