Refinitiv takes over GIACT to enhance its fraud prevention capability

By Pavithra R

Refinitiv,  a leading provider of financial markets data and infrastructure, has announced entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Giact Systems (GIACT) to boost the company’s existing risk and compliance capabilities with the addition of GIACT’s digital identity, payments verification and fraud prevention.

The acquisition comes at a time when organizations are challenged by the escalated growth in digitalization accelerated by the emergence of global connectivity, new fraud threats, and COVID-19 pandemic. These factors are enforcing the need for improvements to fraud prevention and compliance procedures, as well as a move towards more holistic solutions for fraud prevention, digital identity verification, and anti-money laundering.

Founded in 2004, Texas-based GIACT is on the forefront of helping companies eliminate payments risk and identity fraud, verify customers and stay in compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. It has over 100 employees supporting more than 1,000 leading blue-chip companies, payment merchants, financial and insurance customers. The firm enables organizations across the U.S. to combat payments fraud, account takeovers and identity theft, which facilitates faster and secure transactions.

GIACT’s platform approach and unique analytics enable risk insights to be generated from the aggregation of proprietary and extensive third-party data sources. The platform enables customers to identify potential fraud-related risk in real-time for transactions across the customer lifecycle. Its platform provides a seamless digital experience for customers by ensuring that only high-risk transactions are flagged for attention thereby effectively meeting KYC obligations and in the adoption of digital payments and services.

“The nature of financial crime, including fraud tactics is rapidly evolving and becoming more sophisticated. This presents significant challenges for organizations as they embrace online transactions and digital onboarding of customers. With the addition of GIACT, we can bring customers a comprehensive platform to address fraud, identity theft, money-laundering and payment-related crimes. I’m excited at the prospect of combining the expansive data sets, powerful analytics and human expertise of both organizations to the benefit of our customers, and I look forward to welcoming GIACT to Refinitiv,” said Phil Cotter, Managing Director, Risk at Refinitiv.

Refinitiv will integrate GIACT’s offerings into its risk & compliance business, alongside other products and services including World-Check, Qual-ID and Enhanced Due Diligence service. The integration is expected to bring new offerings to Refinitiv’s customers by enhancing and broadening Refinitiv’s digital identity verification and document proofing solution, Qual-ID.

GIACT’s extensive U.S. data assets and Refinitiv’s international identity data will provide customers with a global platform to address identity theft. Customers can also access GIACT’s platform alongside Refinitiv’s World-Check risk intelligence data, offering end-to-end fraud prevention, identity verification and compliance platform that addresses money-laundering risks besides preventing monetary loss through fraud.

“Refinitiv has a strong global presence and a clear vision of how to respond to the growing demand from customers in the risk and compliance space. Through this combination, Refinitiv and GIACT will bring to market a unique platform that can address the complete customer lifecycle, regardless of industry, marking an industry first. We’re thrilled that GIACT will be part of that vision and we look forward to the next phase of growth for our business,” said Melissa Townsley-Solis, co-founder and CEO at GIACT.

Founded in 2018, Refinitiv provides information, insights, and technology that drive innovation and performance in global financial markets. According to company data, the FinTech serves more than 40,000 institutions in approximately 190 countries.