Money Router the troubleshooter for London crime
A capital idea?
UK-based Route Trading is to unveil Money Router – a solution designed to tackle the problem of “illicit money transfers taking place” in London.
Launching on 27 September, Route Trading says the new software enables banks to reduce the risks involved in home remittance.
The firm says the solution can “strengthen the safety of global payments, allowing financial institutions to set their own parameters in accordance with money laundering and terrorism financing regulations, but it will also drastically decrease the banks potential vulnerability to threat”.
Money Router features real-time processing and the system can issue a warning signal prior to the authorisation of a transaction. The solution offers “instant” end-to-end, identity verification system checks both on the company and the individuals involved in a money transfer against the “most up-to-date” compliance databases, allowing banks to approve only the transactions that meet the standards they set.
Route Trading was developed in London by a team led by a compliance officer employed at a UK bank, and a tech entrepreneur with a background in money transfers. The co-CEOs are Musa Jammeh and Taimoor Iqbal.
Down on the street
To further explain its offering, Route Trading says that almost every UK high street has a kiosk offering to “send money home”.
It says overseas workers often transfer part of their earnings to their families abroad, and as migration has increased all over the world, the total value of these “home remittances” to emerging economies is “now double” that of direct foreign aid.
Route Trading says much of the sector is “unregulated”, so it has also become “notorious for its links with money laundering and terrorism”.
The firm cites a World Bank study from 2015, where over 50% of money transfer companies have had at least one bank account closed, and 28% of principals – the people who receive money – and 45% of handling agents – who pay out overseas – now have no bank account at all. In the UK and US in particular, large numbers of MSB (money service business) bank accounts have been closed by major high street banks in the past few years.
