Globus Payments uses flexible transaction monitoring to power growth into new markets

Globus Payments is a B2B payment provider, offering its clients the ability to make both domestic and cross-border payments and receivables. Providing services across the UK and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), its offering is characterized by speed and simplicity, with 24/7 connectivity, FX solutions, and real-time reporting.

Like all firms in the payments space, Globus faces multiple risks, including significant regulatory obligations around anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) processes, consumer duty requirements, and operational risks that mean the business must maintain the technology and human resources to carry out appropriate due diligence on its clients.

We actively monitor the risks posed by our business activities and implement measures such as robust transaction monitoring, IT controls, and a strong compliance framework to mitigate these.

Kym Routledge, Group Chief Compliance Officer & UK MLRO, Globus Payments

For Globus’ compliance team, success is defined by the ability to support the firm’s growth ambitions while remaining fully compliant with all relevant regulations. To achieve these aims, Globus chose to partner with ComplyAdvantage for transaction monitoring and payment screening, allowing it to effectively screen incoming and outgoing transactions for financial crime risks, and identify any suspicious or unusual patterns of customer behavior.

How compliance became a competitive advantage for Globus

Central to Globus’ approach is that the company treats compliance as a business enabler, rather than as a superficial obligation, which allows it to grow its customer base in a safe and sustainable way. Following a risk-based approach to transaction monitoring has allowed Globus to improve its customer experience while ensuring the business remains protected against financial crime, with reduced customer friction and ineffective AML reviews.

This mindset played an important role in the firm’s decision to use ComplyAdvantage’s product range, which is designed to streamline compliance processes and support business growth with flexible solutions.

We take our reputation very seriously. Our responsibility to safeguard our clients, ourselves, and our partners is paramount. That is why we will only partner with tech providers that share the same principles and standards as us.

Ian Moore, Group CEO, Globus Payments

This became especially important when the company expanded its operations into the UAE and took on new regulatory obligations.

During Globus’ expansion, key objectives included fast implementation to ensure the business was ready to go live in all markets, without compromising on the effectiveness of the company’s financial crime controls or the quality of alerts. This meant implementing screening and monitoring systems that were fully compliant with Globus’ dual regulatory frameworks, tailored to its risk appetite and policies, and that retained the safety and quality of customer and risk data.

A proactive approach to compliance from both Globus and ComplyAdvantage, involving constantly evaluating risk frameworks and implementing customized processes in different markets, was crucial throughout this process.

Collaboration lays the foundations for success

ComplyAdvantage’s reputation as a RegTech provider trusted by thousands of global financial institutions was a significant factor in Globus selecting our solutions, and key stakeholders in the business have cited the deep regulatory and technical knowledge of the ComplyAdvantage team as a contributor to the success of the partnership.

Ongoing support from ComplyAdvantage has also proven to be a difference-maker, with the quality of customer service and fast, responsive answers to challenges from our Customer Success team also mentioned. This has included both troubleshooting and proactive planning for the future to ensure ComplyAdvantage can support Globus’ continued growth and build flexible solutions to mitigate changing risks. Kym Routledge, Globus’ Chief Compliance Officer & UK MLRO, describes the relationship between the teams as “a trusted partnership of collaborative support delivered with professional friendliness.”

Implementing new tech solutions while a business is growing rapidly can often be challenging, but Globus and ComplyAdvantage successfully avoided delays and setbacks through effective collaboration and a robust piloting and testing process.

Working with a forward-thinking partner like Globus Payments is incredibly rewarding because they view compliance as a competitive advantage. By leveraging our customizable transaction monitoring and screening tools, Globus has successfully minimized the friction of false positives, allowing their experts to focus on genuine risk. It’s a perfect example of how the right technology can streamline operations while supporting ambitious transaction volumes.

Luke Rogers, VP of EMEA, ComplyAdvantage

ComplyAdvantage’s solutions boost productivity and efficiency

For Globus’ compliance team, the difference ComplyAdvantage has made is allowing them to build a transaction monitoring and payment screening framework precisely calibrated to the firm’s business profile and the risks it faces.

Instead of using an off-the-shelf solution that would create alert backlogs, high false positive rates, and ineffective risk detection with inflexible rules, Globus has been able to create custom rules based on its products, customer base, and the constantly shifting financial crime landscape. As its risks change, Globus can adapt its rules in real time to maintain highly accurate and efficient outcomes, remove roadblocks to growth, and maximize the productivity of its compliance team by freeing them up to work on high-value decision-making instead of remediating unnecessary alerts.

We’ve seen a huge reduction in false positives, which is not only better for our client’s journey, but also allows the team to focus on investigations and genuine threats.

Kym Routledge, Group Chief Compliance Officer & UK MLRO, Globus Payments

With the help of ComplyAdvantage’s solutions, Globus has been able to meet ambitious growth targets, seeing significantly increased transaction volumes ahead of forecast. With the ComplyAdvantage product roadmap set to further enable Globus’ growth, both teams look forward to continuing the partnership in the long term.

Whether you’re an established firm or a startup, ComplyAdvantage will talk you through your options, share best-in-class knowledge, and enable you to build a comprehensive and secure transaction monitoring solution.

Kym Routledge, Group Chief Compliance Officer & UK MLRO, Globus Payments