Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) Selects ThetaRay’s AI-Powered AML Solution to support its mission to promote the growth of Cross-Border Payments on the African continent
New York, NY, March 12, 2024 – ThetaRay, the leader in next-generation AI-powered transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and customer risk assessment, announced today that PAPSS, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, selected ThetaRay as its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and screening partner as it works to revolutionize the settlement of cross-border payments in Africa, estimated to be valued at over $200b.
“As PAPSS rapidly scales to spur economic growth and prosperity across Africa, it is critical we ensure financial crimes are effectively managed and malicious persons can’t take advantage of legitimate transaction routes,” said Mike Ogbalu, CEO of PAPSS. “ThetaRay’s AI-powered AML solution is uniquely suited for this challenge given its accuracy and efficiency to empower a high level of trust both of transactions and the people making them.”
Established in 2022, PAPSS is a cross-border, financial market infrastructure enabling payment transactions across Africa as part of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). PAPSS is the brainchild of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Africa’s pre-eminent trade finance institution, whose mission includes stimulating the expansion, diversification and development of African trade.
“Enabling efficient and effective growth of cross-border payments is fundamental to Africa’s overall economic development but requires building a trusted AML regime to underpin it” said Peter Reynolds, CEO of ThetaRay. “We’re excited to partner with PAPSS and support its mission to build a modern and secure financial network across Africa. We know it is absolutely possible to make African cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive, while maintaining safety, security and trust. ”
ThetaRay’s cloud-based transaction monitoring, screening and due diligence solutions utilize proven unsupervised and semi-supervised AI to provide best-in-class financial crime-fighting technology to fintechs and banks around the world including Santander, Travelex, Payoneer, Onafriq (previously MFS Africa) and more. The technology enables dozens of financial institutions to expand their risk coverage, grow their business, increase revenues, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce compliance costs.
ThetaRay will be exhibiting at Pay360 (Booth #92) on March 20-21.
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About ThetaRay
ThetaRay’s suite of AI-powered financial crime technology including SONAR transaction monitoring and sanctions screening solution as well as CRA for Customer Due Diligence allows banks and fintechs to expand their business opportunities and grow revenues through trusted transactions and trusted people. The groundbreaking solution also improves customer satisfaction, reduces compliance costs, and increases risk coverage. Financial organizations that rely on highly heterogeneous and complex ecosystems benefit greatly from ThetaRay’s unmatchable low false positive and high detection rates.
For more information: www.thetaray.com
About PAPSS
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System – PAPSS is a centralized Financial Market Infrastructure that enables the efficient flow of money securely across African borders, minimizing risk and contributing to financial integration across the regions. PAPSS works in collaboration with Africa’s central banks to provide a payment and settlement service to which commercial banks and licensed payment service providers across the region can connect as ‘Participants’. Afreximbank and the African Union (“AU”) first announced PAPSS at the Twelfth Extraordinary Summit of the African Union held on July 7, 2019, in Niamey, Niger Republic, therefore adopting PAPSS as a key instrument for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Further, in its thirteenth (13th) extraordinary session, held on the December 5, 2020, the assembly of African Union recommitted and instructed the Afreximbank and the AfCFTA secretariat to finalize among others, work on the Pan-African Payments and Settlements System (PAPSS). The 35th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU, further directed the AfCFTA and Afreximbank to deploy the system to cover the entire continent. PAPSS was officially launched in Accra, Ghana on January 13, 2022, thus making it available for use by the public.
For more information, visit: www.papss.com