IHS Markit, a global provider of shipping and maritime data and analytics, has signed a new trade finance partnership with compliance solutions brand TradeSun.

Under the deal, IHS Markit and TradeSun will offer an all-in-one integrated solution that enhances financial crime due diligence and advances digitisation of the overall compliance process.   

The combined solution connecting TradeSun’s AI-powered trade compliance platform with IHS Markit’s extensive financial crime datasets offers real-time compliance checks, including for vessel tracking and behavioral analytics, container compliance and bill of lading verification, dual-use goods and product value screening. 

The partnership enables potential illicit activity in trade transactions to be flagged instantly by TradeSun’s platform, significantly reducing risk and enhancing efficiency.

Nigel Hook, CEO of TradeSun, said: “With technology uncovering that trade-based financial crime is far bigger than most people had imagined, it has never been more crucial for banks and institutions to deploy real-time intelligent compliance solutions for their trade processing. 

“Our partnership with IHS Markit elevates compliance digitalisation to a new paradigm by combining the best technology with the best data, significantly intercepting the potential for economic crime.”

In a press statement, IHS Markit said that by using the solution, customers can safely expand their operations in international trade, knowing that their compliance and risk requirements have been handled automatically. 

Guy Sear, vice president of risk and compliance at IHS Markit, said: “Advisories, guidelines, and regulation across trade are on the rise, requiring practitioners to understand all aspects of a transaction and to identify its risk. 

“The integration of IHS Markit’s maritime and trade datasets into TradeSun’s platform will provide customers with big data and artificial intelligence to reduce time-consuming false positives, optimise, and digitise business operations, and manage risk in a more timely and efficient manner.”

IHS Markit has a 300-year history within the maritime and trade sector, managing content sets across the shipping, port, cargo, and trading sectors. 

As such, IHS Markit said its in-depth and unique datasets provide organisations with the ability to identify corporate networks, suspicious vessel activity, export-controlled goods, and unit prices across the full HS code spectrum.