Windward Launches Company Risk Insights
Windward, the Predictive Intelligence company applying AI to the maritime industry, announced the launch of Company Risk Insights, providing risk insights into every company in the maritime domain.
The capability utilizes a new ownership data repository, risk indicators, data sets and behavioral models to provide Windward users with a complete risk assessment of all maritime related entities including a beneficiary list up to and including the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO), Windward said, adding Company Risk Insights enhances the efficiency of any counterparty due diligence process and mitigates risk across industries.
Maritime ownership structures are inherently complex and tend to be exploited by bad actors seeking to perpetrate financial crimes such as fraud and money laundering. In addition to regulations implemented in 2020 by financial crime enforcement organizations to reduce these crimes, regulations are expanding even further. In April 2021, FinCEN gave advance notice of the launch of regulatory processes for beneficial ownership reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act, signaling an effort on behalf of governments to crack down on financial crime. To meet the demands of today’s complex business and compliance challenges, companies must adopt more efficient and thorough methods of vetting business partners.
Windward said itss Company Risk Insights provides a transparent risk assessment based on numerous risk indicators. In partnership with Dun & Bradstreet, the company is providing a full beneficiary list including all beneficial parties, individuals or corporate entities up to and including the UBO to support the risk assessment of non-maritime entities.
Windward’s new partnership with LexisNexis allows for automatic screening of all vessels and companies against 130 local and international blacklists, including major sanctions lists. Windward said it provides a unique risk rating for each maritime company and explanatory information regarding the relevant risk. This risk is customizable, dependent on the customer's risk appetite and predefined sanctions regimes they follow.
The new Company Risk Insights capability enables financial institutions, insurers, shipping companies and oil companies alike to gain a comprehensive view of any company’s risk as part of their counterparty due diligence and empowers them to make better, data-driven business decisions, the company said. Windward’s clients in the governmental sector benefit from the ability to identify the manager, owner or UBO behind any vessel, transaction or fleet as part of their networking analysis, it added.
“At Windward we pride ourselves on providing our customers with insights that go beyond the data and we empower them to make business savvy decisions with confidence that follow all the latest regulations,” said Ami Daniel, CEO and Co-Founder of Windward. “With Company Risk Insights, we are using more data, machine learning algorithms and behavioral models to bring even more value to our partners and further establish Windward as the gold standard in maritime risk management.”
