BIIA member Cedar Rose Unravels Innovative Director & Shareholder Search for MENA
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) business information specialists Cedar Rose International have just released a ground-breaking tool for compliance and KYC (Know Your Customer) in MENA and beyond. The result of over 20 years of research, translation and development, the company are now providing a Director and Shareholder search on their website at www.cedar-rose.com where name searches can be conducted to discover which companies and other individuals a director or shareholder is linked to.
KYC and AML compliance has become more and more strictly regulated over recent years, with heavy fines being applied to banks and large internationally trading corporations.
This new search tool can help companies conduct a large proportion of Due Diligence in-house, therefore reducing their costs. Cedar Rose also provide the search via subscription or secure API to ensure accessibility for the global banking community.
Cedar Rose’s founder and CEO, Antoun Massaad said “When two companies go into business, the supplier may well obtain a credit report on the buyer. But without knowing which other companies the buyers’ principals are financially exposed or connected to, the credit report is useful but not 100% of the picture. However, now a Cedar Rose website user or subscriber can either search for Directors & Shareholders on our website, or click on the names, addresses and even phone numbers in the html credit report they have purchased to see the related companies, directorships and shareholdings open up in front of them – even if these cross into other countries or jurisdictions. They can then instantly access data or order fresh investigations on those companies too. This accessibility to linked Director and Shareholder information has been lacking globally and we are evolving it to be a worldwide service. I wish I had access to this tool when I started out as a business researcher! It certainly streamlines the Due Diligence process and will really help companies who are serious about risk mitigation and compliance.”
For the greatest level of accuracy, the new tool allows users to search by name in either English/French or Arabic. Individuals can be pinpointed using nationality, middle names and/or date of birth. Director and Shareholder data as well as company information from official registers within MENA is often only publicly available in Arabic, and in some countries it is often removed from public access. Over several years, Cedar Rose has used both manpower and artificial intelligence to accurately translate names and match verified individuals to companies globally making the searches available in Latin as well as Arabic or Persian characters. In doing so, Cedar Rose are the first organisation to provide a comprehensive Director and Shareholder search for MENA which is available to their customers 24/7.
Cedar Rose has been highly active in the MENA region since 1997, conducting specialist business intelligence insights and drawing data to help companies mitigate risks. Some of the risks are KYC and AML non-compliance, late-payments and defaults. The company were recently voted Commercial Credit Information Provider of the Year by the UK’s Credit 500 following the launch of their Trade Rate initiative. Cedar Rose is constantly trying to bring creative ideas and new technologies to help companies and individuals remain compliant with global regulations by gaining access to previously hard to reach data.
Cedar Rose can be contacted on:
Tel: +357 25 346630
Email: info@cedar-rose.com
Web: www.cedar-rose.com
