With Australian financial regulators firmly eyeing money laundering and facilitators, regtech provider Identitii (ASX: ID8) has secured Mastercard as a client for their Overlay+ platform which is designed to assist with financial crime compliance.

The contract valued at $783k will see Mastercard use Identitii’s Overlay+ platform for their account-to-account network which will securely share crime compliance information within its cross-border payments network.

“We are really pleased to announce our first project with Mastercard, following the Master Services Agreement announced in August,” said Identitii CEO, John Raymont.

“Mastercard will use Overlay+ to support secure information sharing over its cross-border payments network, simplifying financial crime compliance and streamlining payment operations.”

“It is also important validation of Identitii’s new strategy to connect financial services businesses with their global network of partners and customers, making it easier for them to ensure compliance with all jurisdictions and regulators, without replacing legacy technology.”

While money laundering is monitored across all international jurisdictions, there are different operating standards between nations which monitor differing data. To address this, the Overlay+ platform standardises transactions data which enables financial service businesses and regulators to request and share specific data information which gets packaged up by Overlay+.

The Mastercard contract win comes just a week after Identitii won fintech and regtech awards at Sibos – the largest financial services conference in the world which was conducted virtually this year – for their work to increase financial inclusion and reduce the human impact of financial crime.

Money laundering has garnered national attention in Australia this year which culminated in a $1.3 billion fine issued to Westpac for their facilitation of money laundering. There is currently an active AUSTRAC inquiry into Crown Resorts where Chairman Helen Coonan yesterday admitted in the inquiry that Crown Casino facilitated illegal financial activities.

ID8 shares responded exceptionally well to news of the Mastercard contract to open at $0.26 which represented a 67% rise on their previous $0.155 close.