ThetaRay From Israel And Bank Mashreq From UAE Working On Banking Crime Detector

JAKARTA - Israeli technology company ThetaRay will license a financial crime detector that monitors correspondent banking transactions to the Emirati bank Mashreq, Monday, February 14.

According to ThetaRay Chief Executive Mark Gazit, this is the first direct licensing agreement between ThetaRay and a bank from the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, he refused to disclose the annual cost of the deal.

Under this contract, Mashreq will have access to Israeli-developed tools that use artificial intelligence to identify financial cyber threats such as money laundering or fraud so that users can take action against suspicious transactions.

"It's almost like a scanning machine," Gazit told Reuters.

Dubai-based Mashreq has in the past paid fines for violating US sanctions. They said the technology from ThetaRay would be a solution that would allow banks to "effectively thwart financial crime risks in an increasingly complex cross-border payments space."

The UAE, the Middle East's financial and trade center, has in recent years tightened banking and finance regulations. Authorities in the UAE are urging banks to step up anti-money laundering efforts to tackle the perception that the country is becoming a hotspot for illicit money.

Gazit also hopes the deal with Mashreq will pave the way for more contracts in the UAE and other Arab countries for their technology.

Israel and the UAE by 2020 had forged ties under a US-brokered deal that extended to Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

Gazit also said the company plans to remain private in the near future and could soon raise the "higher side" of tens of millions of dollars to help it expand and build capacity.