The CEO of Napier AI, Greg Watson, recently shared his thoughts on the company's path and the top concerns financial institutions are now facing with reference to anti-money laundering (AML).

With the intention of advancing the development of its next-generation screening and monitoring solutions for financial institutions, Napier recently obtained £45 million in funding from Crestline Investors.


With this investment round, Napier AI raised its first outside funding. It has occurred during a time of rapid expansion for RegTech, which has had revenue growth of over 30% year since 2021.

Although FinTech funding has had difficulties, Watson stated that compliance would always have a budget. According to him, this is especially true for the UK, where the regulator is working to shed the country's image as the "dirty money capital of Europe."

Napier is seeking to strengthen its offerings and investigate more innovation in the field of artificial intelligence at the moment of its fundraising round. "The financial crime compliance industry is changing rapidly, and this funding will enable us to keep creating NextGen screening and monitoring solutions—which are critical given the current regulatory environment," he stated.

Established in 2015, Napier AI is a RegTech platform. The business provides state-of-the-art AML solutions to the banking, payments, and wealth & asset management sectors. Customers can easily screen, monitor, and identify illicit or suspicious activity thanks to the software's capabilities, which greatly lowers operating costs and hazards related to money, reputation, and regulations. Watson stated that Napier is pleased to have been established and is run by a group of AML professionals who are aware of the difficulties experienced by employees of financial institutions and what is required for them to improve their compliance procedures.

Watson clarified that artificial intelligence (AI) is central to Napier and permeates everything it does. Although there has always been a lot of buzz surrounding the technological stack, the excitement surrounding generative AI in the last few years has caused it to soar to new heights. Its use to AML is still uncommon, nevertheless. as it ought to be. Watson thinks that most financial institutions haven't yet looked into use cases for AI-powered AML. Regulators' initial reluctance to permit AI's use in AML has contributed to this, but they are now allowing banks to utilize AI—as long as it is highly explicable—in this regard.

Watson stated, "We prioritize AI-driven AML solutions that drive real value for our customers, with a focus on compliance first." Our artificial intelligence powers the automation of financial organizations' strategies while keeping humans involved. We take great satisfaction in the fact that top financial institutions and regulators trust us to use our technology, deploy it quickly, and innovate in new ways. We have assisted clients in going live in as little as 21 days, demonstrating how smoothly and minimally disruptively our solutions can be installed. We'll keep funding our AI R&D, and we have additional product features in the works that will further automate compliance teams' tasks.

Working closely with regulators is a key component of Napier's strategy. To make sure that its products comply with the changing regulatory environment, the RegTech company maintains a working relationship with the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom. He clarified that this implies clients will always have the best tools for compliance.

Watson concluded by making a comment about the state of financial crime compliance going forward. He pointed out that the industry is changing quickly and that there are many other organizations than traditional banks. "These diverse financial institutions must prioritise robust compliance measures as regulatory pressures intensify," he stated.

He is sure that Napier is in a good position to take advantage of the growing market by offering customized solutions to businesses at various phases of their compliance journey. This is highlighted by the statement we made recently regarding our new solution offerings, Napier AI Continuum Live and Napier AI Continuum flow. For these recently regulated organizations (neo banks, new payment fintechs, wealth & asset management firms), who often have low volumes presently but need to get ready for hyper scale, Napier AI Continuum Live presents an appealing solution. Additionally, Napier AI Continuum Flow enables big financial institutions that have already made significant investments in self-built or custom case management to incorporate AI-powered next-generation screening and monitoring features into their current workflow.

Watson finished by saying that a key component of Napier's strategy is client happiness. "We use customer feedback as a compass to guide our product offerings and make sure our solutions are always evolving to stay one step ahead of criminal activity, rather than just as a metric." Napier intends to concentrate on developing a top-notch, AI-powered transaction monitoring system with compliance as its top priority by 2024.