NEW YORK & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory DataCorp, Inc. (RDC), the global leader in compliance screening, today announced that it has partnered with the Mekong Club as well as enhanced its screening platform to help eliminate a critical social blight and one of the fastest-growing sources of financial crime - human trafficking.
The International Labour Organization and International Organization for Migration estimate that there are more than 40 million victims of modern slavery globally, with 75% of those being women and children. Human trafficking represents a $150 billion industry worldwide with almost two-thirds of those proceeds coming from sexual exploitation. Many countries and financial institutions which hold data on traffickers and their victims are beginning improve their procedures and update their policies to better report suspicious transactions and other financial activity.
“Human trafficking represents the most vile of crimes we encounter – it’s nothing more than modern day slavery and has no place in our society or the global economy,” said Thomas M. Obermaier, CEO of RDC. “While we are continuing to elevate the ability of our customers to detect and prevent human trafficking, RDC also believes we have a moral imperative to help prevent any crimes which prey on innocent and vulnerable civilians.”
As part of its ongoing quest to improve detection and prevention of human trafficking, RDC is collaborating with the Hong Kong-based Mekong Club to disrupt this crime. The Mekong Club brings a deep understanding of the human trafficking market, extensive private and public sector relationships and passion for collaboration and market education. This will enable RDC to add to its 9 million strong database of wrongdoers, more effectively collaborate with other organizations with a similar mission and substantially improve the awareness and prioritization of our customers’ compliance in this area.
Additionally, RDC has enhanced its internal screening algorithms to better identify suspected traffickers and bring them to the attention of compliance professionals. This allows RDC’s customers to more rapidly prevent account openings, refuse transactions and enhance their monitoring systems and regulatory reporting.
“There are more slaves today than any other time in history,” said Matt Friedman, CEO of the Mekong Club. “These victims, who can be found in factories, construction sites, within fisheries and sex venues, are forced to work for little or no pay, deprived of their freedom, and often subjected to unimaginable suffering. Working with RDC and the overall banking community, these crimes can be better detected using the new emerging tools available today. This could help significantly reduce this horrific human rights abuse over time. RDC’s lead in this area is a significant achievement and something to be applauded.”
“For more than two decades, RDC has delivered market-leading risk intelligence and advanced screening technology to help financial institutions prevent criminal infiltration of the world’s financial systems. We are delighted to collaborate with the Mekong Club to help our customers get better visibility into their prospects and customers and finally put an end to the scourge of human trafficking,” added Obermaier.
About RDC
Regulatory DataCorp, Inc.,(RDC), the Smarter ScreeningTM company prevents criminal infiltration of the world’s financial systems by delivering automated, intelligent customer screening and decision-ready intelligence. RDC supports more than 35,000 compliance professionals across more than 100 countries in strengthening their KYC/AML, fraud and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) protection, ensuring sanctions and watchlist compliance, protecting their brand and reputation and managing supply chain and vendor risks. RDC uniquely combines the world’s largest risk-relevant database together with an advanced machine learning-driven, SaaS-based screening platform, capable of support the largest and most complex global organizations. Founded by 20 of the world’s leading financial institutions, today RDC is a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company. Learn more about RDC by emailing info@rdc.com or visiting www.rdc.com.
About The Mekong Club
The Mekong Club is a Hong Kong based organization that act as a catalyst for change by engaging, inspiring and supporting the private sector to lead in the fight against modern slavery. For more information contact info@themekongclub.org or visit our website at https://themekongclub.org/contact-us.