Atlas ATS, a New York based cryptocurrency trading exchange, has deployed a Strevus hosted solution to ensure that its institutional customers achieve Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance as required under the US Bank Secrecy Act. The exchange is up and running with the Strevus compliance lifecycle management solution in New York and is planning to deploy it at operations in Europe and Asia. It will also take advantage of the utility style of Strevus compliance management that allows customers to input their data once for the benefit of many exchanges.
Atlas ATS started the search for a KYC and AML compliance solution last year, following regulatory guidance that digital currency exchanges and their members would be subject to similar due diligence requirements as other financial trading organisations. The exchange considered compliance solutions geared to the retail market and others requiring a large amount of input, before selecting Strevus to support its compliance requirements.
Shawn Sloves, Atlas ATS CEO, explains: “It is difficult to collect information from clients and they all need to provide information separately at different exchanges. This is a long and repetitive process. But in Strevus we found a repository where clients can enter their information voluntarily and where one entity’s information is universally available to other exchanges. The Strevus solution also has an analytics engine and the ability to identify any potential AML activities between entities. This means our members can easily manage the on-boarding process, collect information for KYC and AML reporting, and monitor and analyse data required to ensure ongoing compliance. In future, we plan to leverage Strevus’s compliance technology for multiple private markets.”
Strevus extended its compliance technology to support Bitcoin and other digital currencies in April 2014, recognising regulatory requirements for registration, reporting and record keeping, as well as exponential growth in cryptocurrency trading, albeit from a small start. Ken Hoang, CEO and founder of Strevus, explains: “Early movers in digital currency trading are aggressive hedge funds around the world, but large institutions have now formed digital currency groups and are looking for regulatory guidance on how they can operate. It is only a matter of time before they join the market.”
Hoang suggests Strevus is a good fit here as its managed service has the capabilities to meet exchanges’ initial goals and future proof them against additional regulatory requirements. The company is on-boarding clients and providing proof of KYC compliance for Atlas ATS, as well as looking at the portability of client data to other exchanges. Hoang says: “Our key is time to transaction. The Strevus solution cuts the time to on-board new customers, while dramatically reducing costs.”
As Atlas ATS on-boards customers to its trading exchange, it is also looking forward to using the Strevus solution as a broader, shared customer data repository. Sloves explains: “Imagine 10 Bitcoin businesses all using the same client data repository. Using the Strevus platform they could cross-reference client data and the clients would be immediately available for trading. A solution like this stops customers having to repeat processes and lowers the barriers to trading.”
On the subject of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, he concludes: “Bitcoin is a transformational product and digital currencies are one of the most significant inventions of recent times. They will change everything.”
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