How Flutterwave Uses Unit21 to Achieve a 14% False-Positive Rate
Introduction
Flutterwave is a Fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers. They focus on both B2C and B2B payment facilitation, so businesses can use Flutterwave to process payments for cards and at the same time, consumers can sign up for their products and can use them to do money transfers.
In an effort to understand how Flutterwave is successfully using Unit21’s Transaction Monitoring and Case Management software, we interviewed Chief Compliance Office, Mobolaji (Mo) Bammeke, to get his unique insights.
Introduction
Flutterwave is a Fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers. They focus on both B2C and B2B payment facilitation, so businesses can use Flutterwave to process payments for cards and at the same time, consumers can sign up for their products and can use them to do money transfers.
In an effort to understand how Flutterwave is successfully using Unit21’s Transaction Monitoring and Case Management software, we interviewed Chief Compliance Office, Mobolaji (Mo) Bammeke, to get his unique insights.
"Before Unit21, there was always someone who was constantly looking at transactions and pulling reports on a regular basis. Whereas with Unit21, those decisions are made instantly, which has been massively impactful for our productivity."
14%
False Positive Rate for alerts dispositioned in 2021.
A Little Background: The Flutterwave and Unit21 Story
When Mo first joined Flutterwave, everything for risk and compliance operations was being done manually, and it was part of his initial responsibilities to find a solution like Unit21 to help his team become more effective at their jobs.
As a rapidly growing Fintech, Flutterwave needed something that would be flexible enough to grow right alongside them. Since Flutterwave did not have a complete compliance function in place before Mo was hired, they were essentially starting at the beginning. Adopting Unit21 was part of the beginning of a very successful program build.
Why Flutterwave Chose Unit21
For Flutterwave, the process of vetting tools was comprehensive and there were a few front runners, including what was then called Mastercard Gatekeeper.
Ultimately, Unit21 was chosen for its flexibility, price, and ease of use.
“One of the key criteria for us was having a tool that was very flexible in terms of integrating and writing rules, and creating rules so that non-engineering folks can develop the right rules and monitor them. We were impressed by how intuitive Unit21 was and how easy it was for us to understand how to use it.”
How Unit21 Is Being Utilized
When asked how their team has changed since Flutterwave began using Unit21, Mo reflected on their previous process of manual monitoring and reporting.
“First, we looked at how data was generated and we looked at the reports from the rules manually. Once we were confident in the quality of the rules, we then moved into making more decisions. Now, there's an automated system in place to help us make those decisions based on the rules. We don't need somebody to manually go in and analyze everything so now we can focus on other more important activities.”
And when questioned about the ROI of a tool like Unit21, Mo laughed and said, “It's definitely worth the investment. Having a solution like Unit21 literally helps us sleep at night because now, we don't have to have somebody up all night manually tracking and blocking stuff.”
Again, before Unit21, there was always someone who was constantly looking at transactions and pulling reports on a regular basis. Whereas with Unit21, those decisions are made instantly, which has been massively impactful for our productivity.”
Driving Impact for Flutterwave: Final Thoughts
Flutterwave is a great example of an exciting, up-and-coming company that outgrew its legacy risk and compliance operations process, and made the right choice by moving from manual monitoring and reporting to a more scalable solution.
Since beginning with Unit21, the Flutterwave team achieved a false-positive rate of 14% (where the industry standard is 95%) for alerts dispositioned through the system.
“One of the main benefits of Unit21 is that you can choose certain rules to trigger automated decisioning, which enable the team to concentrate on other manual alert rule reviews.”
Instead of spending countless hours tracking and compiling data after-the-fact, or investing in an internally developed system that would require engineering bandwidth to make any updates, Mo opted for a flexible, easy-to-use solution that everyone on his team could understand and utilize to identify suspicious merchants.
“One of the key things about Unit21, for me, is how intuitive it is to play around with. I don't need to go and read a massive manual to understand it. I can pop in, take a look, and tell you exactly what is going on.”
We are proud to have Flutterwave as a customer and are thrilled to help growing businesses transition from manual risk and compliance operations strategies. If you are interested in trying out Unit21, schedule a demo to see it in action today.
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