smartKYC, providers of award-winning AI-enabled KYC and third-party risk intelligence technology, has appointed Jonathan Jacobi as Business Development Director. Reporting to CEO Dermot Corrigan, Jacobi will help grow and support smartKYC’s global expansion plans.
smartKYC is facing increasing demand from firms looking to perform comprehensive third-party due diligence and on a continuous basis. For banks, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) are becoming ever-more stringent. For corporates, the role of suppliers, partners, vendors, and affiliates is growing in scale and interconnectivity, and are therefore becoming harder to manage. Gartner estimates 60 per cent of organisations are now working with more than 1,000 third parties and this number is likely to grow even more over the next few years.
Dermot Corrigan, Chief Executive Officer, smartKYC, says: “The combination of regulatory impetus, consumer sentiment and investor pressure has driven third-party due diligence to the top of the agenda for both banks and corporates. Our solution is perfectly suited to helping these firms produce a 360-degree view of their respective ecosystems and so I am thrilled that Jonathan, who I have known and trusted for many years, is taking the helm of our business development.”
Jacobi has over 20 years’ sales leadership with experience across the risk and compliance sector, including KYC, AML, enhanced due diligence (EDD) ID verification, employee and customer onboarding, machine learning, and semantic search. He has had sales leadership roles at various companies such as LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions, Neotas Ltd., and Sterling Talent Solutions and has a law degree from the University of Hull.
Jacobi says: “Having been in this space for a long time, I have seen first-hand how firms are facing increased pressure to reduce their cost base and be more compliant at the same time. Only technology can make this happen and the application of artificial intelligence approaches such as natural language processing is key to achieving this. So, when I saw the industry leading technology that smartKYC employed to help firms fight financial crime, anti-bribery and their rapidly growing focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, I jumped at the chance to become part of their story.”
