Less than 5% of Romanian companies currently use AML (Anti-Money Laundering) solutions to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, according to an analysis by the Romanian company Qoobiss, the developer of the Qoobiss AML solution, which supports companies in the financial sector to automate the verification and monitoring of individuals and legal entities, in order to establish compliance risk.
“The share of companies implementing AML solutions will accelerate in the coming period, rising to 8% – 10% at the end of 2023. In the last year, the incidence of digital fraud has increased, as companies invest in the development of online activity and generate an increased volume of online transactions and digital payments. Globally, more than half of the companies have been defrauded in the last 2 years, with 53% of them recording financial losses as a result of the frauds they faced. The situation in Romania is similar“, says Ileana Comănescu, KYC Global Product Manager at Qoobiss.
According to the “Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022”, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), almost 4 out of 10 companies with global annual revenues below 100 million dollars have been defrauded in the last two years.
And in this situation, combined with the sanctions imposed on Russia, which include commercial and economic restrictions, bans on imports and exports, limitations on banking transactions, travel restrictions, etc., companies become much more careful with who they collaborate with, to whom they provide services and products and they want to know their customers better in order to prevent their services from being used for illegal activities and to protect the integrity of financial systems.
- “The Qoobiss AML solution was launched last year in September, and we currently have 15 customers. We estimate that by the end of the year we will increase the customer portfolio by approximately 30%”, says Ileana Comănescu, noting that, since the launch of the solution, the companies that have implemented this type of service are part of the financial and gaming industries, recently concluding a contract with an insolvency industry partner.
Currently, in Romania, according to the legislation in force, only banking institutions have the obligation to verify the identity of customers, as well as to monitor them throughout the contractual period. But the implementation of AML solutions helps companies not to be defrauded and, at the same time, to comply with the law and reduce the criminal phenomenon.