Israel-based ThetaRay, a provider of Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced analytics tools, has launched FastStart, a product that aims to address the requirements of financial institutions during the COVID-19 crisis.
As noted on ThetaRay’s official website:
“Since the pandemic began, banks have seen a 25% surge in fraud and 35% in alerts. Making it worse, some banks do not include teams conducting fraud reviews and alert adjudication as ‘essential’ in their Business Continuity Plans.”
In order to address these issues, the Israeli firm has introduced ThetaRay FastStart, which leverages machine learning to offer “50% acceleration in analyst triage times for high-priority alerts.”
ThetaRay FastStart also reduces false-positive noise by as much as 40%. There are also 30% fewer third-party alerts when using the software, the company claims.
ThetaRay has teamed up with Microsoft Azure to provide faster delivery. The company claims that it can have clients’ systems up and running within 30 days, depending on their particular requirements.
ThetaRay uses templated data schemes which have been developed specifically to work with users’ existing AML & Fraud solutions. The company claims that “nothing needs to be replaced or re-tuned.”
Mark Gazit, CEO at ThetaRay, stated:
“Covid-19 has severely impacted the world as we know it, but unfortunately, criminals are using the crisis as an excuse to line their pockets. ThetaRay is offering FastStart as a means for banks to defend themselves immediately while protecting their budgets during this chaotic time.”
Colin Whitmore, senior analyst, Aite Group, noted:
“FastStart is the right market solution for the challenges faced across the banking industry in our current times. It [could] help protect financial institutions and their customers against sophisticated schemes and attacks.”
Earlier this year, ThetaRay joined Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) partner program, One Commercial Partner, which provides various cloud-powered solutions.
ThetaRay’s anti-money laundering (AML) solution for correspondent banking can be accessed through Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. A large US bank has reportedly signed an agreement to use the solution.
Gazit noted (in March 2020):
“Global banks are increasingly de-risking or abandoning their correspondent banking relationships due to a lack of transparency and fears of money laundering and regulatory fines. Our solution provides banks with the … ability to reverse the trend and grow their business by allowing full visibility into all links of the cross-border payment chain, from originator to beneficiary.”