Bank account authentication, funds confirmation and KYC provider GIACT will be acquired by Refinitiv, a financial technology and data vendor owned by London Stock Exchange Group. GIACT’s data and technology will complement Refinitiv’s due diligence, risk and compliance services while broadening the company’s digital fraud prevention and identity services.
The acquisition of GIACT both strengthens Refinitiv’s existing service offerings with stronger US data assets and broadens their service offerings and capabilities to additional industries. Risk and compliance is only one aspect of Refinitiv’s business, which also includes asset and wealth management, investment banking, trading and settlement platforms as well as pricing and news aggregation and analysis tools. A global company with 40,000 institution customers across 190 countries, Refinitiv’s acquisition of GIACT complements existing international identity data with robust US identity assets and bank account information via GIACT’s proprietary data and strategic data partnerships.
Refinitv’s acquisition of GIACT comes soon after Visa reached an agreement to acquire Plaid, although the US Department of Justice seeks to block that acquisition.
Refinitiv, originally a joint venture owned by Blackstone Group and Thomson Reuters, was acquired by London Stock Exchange Group for $27 billion in August 2019. Their services primarily focus on financial institutions with due diligence, anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) services to manage both risk and compliance.
The acquisition of GIACT both strengthens Refinitiv’s existing service offerings with stronger US data assets and broadens their service offerings and capabilities to additional industries. GIACT co-founder and CEO, Melissa Townsley-Solis, described how GIACT and Refinitiv “will bring to market a unique platform that can address the complete customer lifecycle, regardless of industry.”
Head of digital identity and financial crime at Refinitiv, James Mirfin, added that organizations are looking for “a holistic technology solution to address this converging risk across fraud, identity, AML and cybercrime.” Addressing this market need is what Refinitiv plans accomplish with their purchase of GIACT.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but the deal is expected to close before year’s end.
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