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AML Watcher
Journey
For AML Watcher, that spark ignited not in a lab or boardroom, but in a candid conversation between friends who shared a common frustration: compliance tools just weren’t working.
The Problem No One
Could Ignore
Laying the
Foundation
Making the final
touches
Scaling the
Solution
Partnerships
That Matter
Making the
final touches
The Problem No One Could Ignore
Before AML Watcher even had a name, its eventual founder, Khurram Akhtar, was closely connected with leaders in the RegTech industry. He was frequently called into conversations where legacy systems were stifling innovation. Time and again, he watched talented teams lose momentum to fragmented tools and outdated data infrastructure.
One day, while speaking with a KYC provider, the conversation took a familiar turn. Their clients were frustrated. They had to rely on multiple vendors for various AML verifications - PEPs, sanctions, watchlists - and it wasn’t working. There were too many false positives. The data was inconsistent. Compliance became a bottleneck rather than a safeguard. They were losing clients.
Khurram didn’t offer a pitch. He made a promise: “I think I can build something better.”
Having successfully led an IPO in Sweden in 2019 for a fintech & crypto company, he knew what it took to scale a product that could shift industry standards. And with the team at Programmers Force, he believed he had the right people to make that vision real.
That moment marked the quiet beginning of what would become AML Watcher.
Laying the Foundation
Creating a unified AML solution wasn’t as simple as stitching together data sources. The team faced fundamental challenges: How should sanctions be categorized? What does a “watchlist” even mean when every regulator defines it differently? And why are the most corruption-prone PEPs—the ones no one is looking at—so hard to track?
Instead of shortcuts, AML Watcher built a custom data layer. Every sanction was treated distinctly. Even low-risk PEPs were included. Definitions were standardized. Watchlists became meaningful, not just aggregated. Instead of depending on third-party vendors, AML Watcher aggregated its data, country by country, list by list. The result was a scalable, high-integrity database that not only kept up—it stayed ahead.
Making the final touches
Then came the next hurdle: name matching. Transliteration. Typos. Inconsistent data formatting. AML Watcher didn’t just match names— it enriched them, utilizing AI and biometrics to ensure accuracy even when the input was incomplete or messy.
The KYC provider who first inspired the project tested AML Watcher with 100,000 profiles. The results? Remarkably fewer false positives. Faster processing. Clearer outcomes. That’s when it became clear: AML Watcher wasn’t just a good idea — it worked.
Scaling the Solution
By 2023, AML Watcher had evolved from a promising startup to a trusted platform. The system now covered:
Official Watchlists
Sanction Regimes
Countries & Territories
With multilingual support, real-time monitoring, and biometric screening, it became the quiet backbone of compliance for organizations worldwide.
Partnerships That Matter
In 2024, AML Watcher made significant strides toward industry integration. Regionally, it is recognized as an Partner of the Singapore Fintech Association, strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia’s fintech ecosystem. In parallel, our involvement with the Fintech Association of Hong Kong positioned us at the center of regional compliance innovation.
On the global stage, AML Watcher gained recognition as a Market Disruptor in the Chartis RiskTech100® rankings, highlighting our momentum and technology leadership. Media partnerships with platforms like Finextra allowed us to contribute thought leadership on the future of AML and RegTech.
We also partnered with Raw Compliance, combining in-depth insights with our powerful AML screening to deliver even more actionable intelligence to AML teams.
But we didn’t just build tech — we built community.
Our regular networking mixers in Dubai (WE Dubai) and Singapore (WE Singapore) brought together compliance professionals for honest, forward-thinking conversations. Through webinars and participation in global AML events, we remained closely attuned to the industry's pulse, learning from others while sharing our own insights.
These partnerships weren’t about clout; they were about connection. Together, they marked AML Watcher’s evolution from an agile solution into a collaborative force helping shape the future of financial compliance globally.
Making the final touches
As we look ahead, AML Watcher is expanding its footprint with purpose. In 2025, we planted roots in two of the world's most dynamic financial hubs—opening new offices in Singapore (APAC headquarters) and Dubai (MENA operations).
This expansion marks more than geographic growth—it reflects our belief that fighting financial crime is a global mission. And we’re just getting started.
We’re investing in:
- Smarter AI-driven screening
- Greater localization of compliance standards
- More integrations with real-time monitoring
- Stronger community-building through global partnerships
We are also working on an Agentic AI solution like never before. While the world offers half-baked answers, we’re building AI that actually works in real-life compliance environments.
The journey doesn’t end here. We will continue to innovate, connect, and challenge the status quo — because financial systems everywhere deserve transparency without friction and compliance without compromise.
Who We Serve and Why It Matters
We Cater to All
For Regulators
Regulators are tasked with an increasingly complex mandate: to ensure financial stability, prevent crime, and maintain trust in global systems. But the tools haven’t always kept pace. AML Watcher provides transparent and explainable compliance mechanisms, eliminating black-box models and enabling audit-ready processes.
Our standardized definitions, real-time data enrichment, and robust name-matching logic help regulators see the whole picture, without the noise of false positives. It’s compliance they can trust, and more importantly, understand.
We Cater to All
For Companies
Startups often lack the resources for deep compliance teams, while large enterprises struggle with legacy systems and data fragmentation. AML Watcher bridges that gap.
For startups, it’s a that doesn't compromise on quality, enabling fast, confident onboarding and regulatory readiness from day one. For enterprises, it offers modular architecture and high-volume support, integrating with complex ecosystems while reducing compliance overhead.
The result? More agility. Less risk. Better customer experience.
We Cater to All
For Individuals
We cut through the noise. With enriched data and automated workflows, MLROs get fewer false positives and more time for critical analysis, without compromising accuracy. Behind every name is a person. Our system reduces wrongful flags through linguistic intelligence and context-aware analysis, ensuring compliance never comes at the cost of fairness.
Because protecting people from fraud shouldn’t come at the cost of wrongful exclusion.
Redefining Compliance, Together
At AML Watcher, we believe that collaboration drives progress. If you’ve felt the frustration of compliance friction of fragmented tools or the weight of global regulation, you’re not alone.
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