SWIFT Acquires Financial Crime Prevention Specialist Omnicision
SWIFT has acquired Omnicision, the UK-based provider of financial crime prevention services and solutions. The financial messaging services provider said that the deal underscores a commitment to invest in its compliance offering, enabling SWIFT to grow its sanctions testing service and further expand its compliance services.
Under terms of the agreement, SWIFT acquires Omnicision’s existing sanctions testing product, plus several new initiatives under development. The acquisition strengthens SWIFT’s compliance services unit by adding financial crime prevention experts with specialist knowledge in areas such as sanctions, anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC).
“Omnicision has developed a great sanctions testing product which will enhance our compliance solutions range,” said Gottfried Leibbrandt, chief executive officer (CEO) of SWIFT. “The combination of Omnicision’s valuable expertise with SWIFT’s world-class security, reliability and operational excellence will enable us to further boost our growth in the compliance area.”
Ian Horobin, CEO of Omnicision, added: “We are excited to join SWIFT at this important stage in the development of its financial crime compliance services. SWIFT’s unique position in the financial community and unrivalled global network will allow us to further innovate and deliver tangible benefits to SWIFT users worldwide.”
SWIFT added that the acquisition marks a further step in the expansion of its compliance services portfolio. The group recently created a dedicated compliance services unit to manage its growing offering and in January announced the creation of 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.