Thunes Takes Majority Stake in the AML and Compliance Platform

Singapore, 19 April, 2022 - Thunes, a Singapore-based global payments company, today announced that it has taken a majority stake in the anti-money laundering (AML) and compliance technology firm, Tookitaki Holding Pte Ltd (‘Tookitaki’). The alliance aims to empower the banking and financial services industry to fight against money laundering and offer safe and secure payments to its customers.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that between 2-5% of global GDP, or US$800 billion - US$2 trillion, is laundered globally each year. This criminal activity threatens the good functioning and integrity of the banking and financial services marketplace. With the increase in cross-border payments, the risk of money laundering goes up significantly, and so do compliance costs. Adding Tookitaki to Thunes’ global network addresses an urgent need for payments and other financial institutions to embed automated, streamlined compliance processes, decreasing risks and reducing overall costs. A recent report by JP Morgan suggests total annual transaction costs for global cross-border payments have climbed to US$120 billion. Regulatory compliance forms a significant percentage of this amount, and any reduction will deliver crucial savings for Thunes' customers.

“We are very excited to have Tookitaki join us. This alliance will give all Thunes customers access to next-generation tech compliance systems, reducing the cost of transferring money across borders. At the same time, all Tookitaki's banking and fintech clients will automatically gain access to Thunes' network, unlocking pathways to scale globally. We’ve already identified multiple ways to grow faster together, increasing the value we provide to our customers. We'll be working to accelerate our growth plans jointly,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes.

Thunes and Tookitaki businesses will continue to operate independently, with the alliance strengthening both companies and enabling them to accelerate expansion and double down on business development. A suite of new compliance solutions will be unveiled this year.

Singapore-based Tookitaki was founded in November 2014, currently employs 100 people in Asia, Europe and the US, and delivers AML and compliance solutions to some of the world's leading banks and financial institutions, using Big Data and machine learning (ML) technologies.

“At Tookitaki, we have been passionate about fighting financial crime and expanding our AML capabilities globally. Thunes is recognised for its far-reaching global network, and the alliance provides us with an ‘unfair’ opportunity to offer our proven and powerful AML solution to banks and fintechs across the fastest growing economies as well as the biggest,” said Abhishek Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of Tookitaki. “Our approach to AML monitoring is highly adaptable to changing market needs and customer behaviour and fundamentally changes how machine learning is applied to detecting financial crime,’ adds Mr Chatterjee.

The Thunes-Tookitaki alliance will set the international benchmark for financial compliance and security and enable safe and secure payments worldwide.

About Thunes

Thunes is a B2B company that powers payments for the world’s fastest-growing businesses. Through a single, simple connection, consumers and businesses can send payments to – and get paid in – every corner of the world. Thunes currently supports 79 currencies, enables payments to 126 countries, and helps to accept 285 payment methods. Thunes is headquartered in Singapore with regional offices in London, Paris, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi.

For more information, visit www.thunes.com

About Tookitaki

Tookitaki is a regulatory technology company offering Compliance Platform as a Service (CPaaS) to some of the world's leading banks and financial institutions to help them transform their AML and compliance technology needs. The Singapore-headquartered company’s CPaaS offering leverages Big data and machine learning techniques to support a suite of smart applications that set new standards in convenience, comprehensiveness and compliance. Tookitaki’s innovations in regulatory compliance have been acknowledged worldwide. In 2020, the company won the Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence and G20TechSprint accelerator. In 2019, the company was selected as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

For more information, please visit www.tookitaki.ai