Zone and ThetaRay collaborate to implement cloud-based SONAR solution to monitor transactions in Nigeria for illicit activities and sanctions violations
ThetaRay, a provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, and Zone (formerly Appzone), Africa’s first regulated layer-1 blockchain network for payments, have announced they will work together to implement ThetaRay’s cloud-based SONAR solution to monitor and screen Zone’s transactions in Nigeria for illegal activities and sanctions violations.
With its headquarters in Lagos, Zone provides real-time, affordable settlement of both fiat and digital currencies for local and international payments to major commercial banks, payment fintechs, digital banks, and OFIs.
With its headquarters in Lagos, Zone provides real-time, affordable settlement of both fiat and digital currencies for local and international payments to major commercial banks, payment fintechs, digital banks, and OFIs.
By means of the arrangement, ThetaRay will give Zone access to its SaaS-based SONAR AI technology, which can spot and stop even the earliest indications of complex attempts to launder money or get around financial sanctions and watchlists. By offering a reliable and secure service, the solution will help Zone make sure it completely complies with the AML standards and boost its growth potential.
The new partnership demonstrates ThetaRay’s growth in the Nigerian fintech payments market.
The Zone blockchain-based decentralized or peer-to-peer payment network enables payments without the need for middlemen switches and is the first of its kind in Africa. The technology underpinning the decentralized architecture improves reliability, ends customer complaints, lowers operational costs, and automates back-office reconciliation. The network is a genuine web-scale infrastructure with a throughput of over 50,000 transactions per second for transaction processing.
Elendu Uche, co-founder and chief operating officer of ThetaRay, said, “We are thrilled with our partnership with ThetaRay. This partnership represents a significant step forward in our vision to become one global network to pay anyone, through any means, in any currency, in the most efficient and secure ways possible.
“By integrating with ThetaRay, we have boosted our security precautions and improved regulatory compliance while giving our users in our decentralized payment network speedier transaction processing. In order to keep providing our clients with frictionless operations and trustworthy transactions, we look forward to collaborating even more closely with ThetaRay.
Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa with a population over 200 million, is home to more than 200 fintech startups and the continent’s largest fintech industry. According to the McKinsey research firm, Nigeria’s young population is responsible for the country’s growing fintech industry, rising smartphone adoption, and a targeted regulatory campaign to enhance financial inclusion and cashless payments. 1 In Nigeria, where more than 40% of the population lacks access to a bank account, the rising fintech business is assisting in enhancing financial inclusion.
According to Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay, “Zone is driving Nigerian fintech innovation with a platform capable of transforming the financial system through inclusive services that positively touch people’s lives.”
“Zone will incorporate trust into its services by implementing powerful AI technology to monitor and screen payments, enabling it to grow volume, revenues, and ecosystem partners.
ThetaRay’s SONAR technology, which has won awards, is built on a patented type of AI called artificial intelligence intuition, which eliminates human bias and gives the machine the ability to spot anomalies and discover unknowns outside of typical behavior, such as whole new typologies. It makes it possible for fintech companies and banks to put into practice a risk-based strategy to efficiently spot suspicious activity and build a complete picture of customer identities, including across intricate, cross-border transaction chains. This makes it possible to quickly identify potential money laundering threats, both known and undiscovered.
