Market Trends of Middle East Crime and Combat Industry
Increased Adoption of Digital/Mobile Payment Solutions to Drive the Market
- Even in the post-COVID-19 scenario, the financial services industry is moving toward significant transformation. Moreover, given the vital significance that digitization is playing in the financial life of an increasing proportion of the world's population, electronic payments are at the core of this shift. Payments are progressively becoming cashless, and the industry's role in supporting inclusivity has become a key priority. Payments also contribute to the growth of digital economies and encourage innovation, all while serving as a secure backbone for the economy.
- Prominent players like Amazon, Apple, PayPal, and Facebook are continually investing significant amounts of money into online and mobile payment solutions. The ongoing development from independent online shops toward integrated online shopping ecosystems has created space for new business models and opportunities for digital payment methods.
- In December 2022, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), FinTech Magnati, and PayRow Net, a PCFC company, launched a new digital payment platform collaboration. The new platform is being created to "transform the existing payment gateway, leading to an enhanced consumer payment process and improved user experience."
- Meanwhile, in the same month of December 2022, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank introduced a tokenized contactless payment system. The "ADIB Pay" system is a collaboration between Visa and China-based Tappy Technologies. ADIB Pay is a physical clasp that can be attached to wearable objects, eliminating the need for a real card to be carried.
- In October 2022, Jingle Pay, a financial super-app that delivers money services in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP) region, formed a strategic relationship with Arab Financial Services (AFS), the Middle East & Africa's major digital payments solutions provider and Fin-Tech enabler. Jingle Pay and AFS are likely to collaborate to provide innovative digital payments and a great customer experience in Bahrain. The collaboration enhances Jingle Pay's footprint in the region, making it easier for people to manage their finances on a daily basis.
- E-commerce platforms and payment methods can be misused for money laundering purposes. Criminals may utilize online marketplaces to conduct fraudulent transactions or inflate the prices of goods/services as a means to legitimize their illicit funds. By converting illegal proceeds into seemingly legitimate e-commerce transactions, criminals can obscure the origin of the funds. According to Worldpay, digital and mobile payments were the second most popular payment method used for e-commerce in the Middle East &African region as of 2022, accounting for 27% of the total e-commerce payments.
- Moreover, creative skills, techniques, and procedures, as well as an innovative application of traditional technology-based processes, can assist regulators, supervisors, and regulated firms in overcoming many of the stated AML/CFT issues. Technology can assist actors in detecting and managing money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) concerns more efficiently and in real-time time by facilitating data collection, processing, and analysis. Advantages include faster payments and transactions, more accurate identification systems, monitoring, record keeping, and information exchange between competent authorities and regulated organizations.
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Transaction Monitoring Solutions to Hold Major Share
- A well-formulated transaction monitoring system is crucial for an effective anti-money laundering (AML) ecosystem. It is more profound in the post-pandemic world, where most transactions are being performed over digital platforms.
- Transaction monitoring software alerts when a situation violates the rules and is against the customer profile during customer transactions. Once the software generates an alarm, the transaction monitoring process conducted by AML is automatically stopped. The cycle continues to be executed and reviewed by the firm's compliance or risk department.
- In the post-pandemic scenario, financial institutions face an even larger challenge in AML and terrorist financing. Public firms are taking preventive measures to combat jobless people involved in money mule scams. The government has also penalized several financial institutions for incompetent transaction monitoring systems.
- The market is also witnessing the implementation of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to map and detect unusual transactions among different account holders. For instance, in April 2021, ThetaRay announced that its AI-based anti-money laundering (AML) analytics would be available on public and private clouds, including Azure, Google, and AWS, which uses unsupervised machine learning to monitor financial transactions, integrate data, and triaging alerts in real-time.
- The new application may help monitor suspicious patterns across all transactions, including various types of payments, users, beneficiaries, devices, merchants, accounts, and cards. It further provides an appropriate action plan to block, pass, or challenge the transaction.
- Moreover, the entry of new mobile payment service providers is further creating a demand for transaction monitoring solutions. For instance, in February 2023, Mobily, a Saudi Arabian telecom service provider, expanded Mobily Pay services in the county via a partnership with Swedish technology company Ericsson. The new solution allows users to make contactless payments, money transfers, international remittances, digital card payments, cash-back, bill payments, mobile top-ups, and more through the platform.
- Thus, transaction monitoring is not only witnessing technological implications but is also being hosted on cloud-based applications to cater to the increasing digitization of the banking industry. This segment is expected to grow significantly with the advent of AI and machine learning.
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