The licence, granted five years after the standards and regulations were established by the Data State Inspectorate of Latvia in 2019, paves the way for financial institutions to collaborate whenever criminal activity is identified or suspected. By alerting their peers when financial crime is detected, firms can take action to limit or prevent it from escalating across the financial services ecosystem.

To become a trusted, licensed supplier of financial services intelligence data exchange services, Salv was required to prove corporate due diligence and demonstrate ISO/IEC 27001 certification, the highest levels of security, data protection and compliance. The licence will enable financial institutions to leverage Salv’s Bridge platform to help combat financial crime.

In 2023, customers of the four largest commercial banks in Latvia were defrauded of funds amounting to €12.7 million, while the amount of prevented cases reached €9.2 million, according to the data compiled by the Financial Industry Association. Also, more than €5.6 million were obtained illegally as a result of investment fraud €5.5 million as a result of telephone fraud, where customers have approved payments from their accounts. Compared to the previous year, 2023 also saw an 84% rise in investment fraud cases reported by financial institutions in Latvia, indicating a rapid rise in financial crime.

“Collaboration between financial institutions is only possible when there is complete confidence and trust in the control, security and compliance of the processes and underlying technology infrastructure,” commented Laima Letina, Advisor to the Finance Latvia Association. “The Latvian State Data Inspectorate established stringent quality and regulatory mandates when the licence was established in 2019. As the first RegTech firm to have successfully applied for and satisfied these requirements, Salv has set a very high bar for others to achieve.”

According to Bruno Puriņš, Salv Market lead in Latvia: “In securing this licence and exceeding the challenging security and regulatory requirements set by the Latvian Data State Inspectorate, Salv has proven that our solutions are fit for purpose and our organisation is trustworthy and robust. We are proud to have excelled under independent scrutiny. Our success in gaining this licence assures both current and future clients - in the Baltic States and more broadly across Europe - that it is now possible for the financial services community to unite against financial crime.”

Edgars Pastars, Senior Associate at Baltics legal advisory firm ZAB COBALT, said: “The use of collaborative customer intelligence tools to fight financial crime have been discussed globally for many years. Despite its modest stature, Latvia is at the forefront of innovation and has pioneered the development of standards and regulations that have transformed this concept into reality. We are proud to have advised the Latvian authorities and financial institutions during the initial licence creation process in 2019, and subsequently to have supported Salv in their pursuit of securing the licence.”