Clear View Systems — the most trusted name in the Foreign Exchange Industry since 2003

Today, the importance of AML compliance is not limited to protecting the financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing; it also has a significant connection with fraud. 

Money laundering techniques are frequently used by fraudsters to conceal the proceeds of their illegal activities, making it difficult to detect and prevent fraud. As a result, AML compliance programs that include customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and reporting of suspicious activities can help detect and prevent fraud.

If you are looking for top-tier AML solution providers to protect your financial institutions, Clear View Systems is the place to go. Clear View System creates cutting-edge financial software and solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.

Recently, CIO Bulletin sat down for chat with Tiran Behrouz, CEO and President of Clear View Systems. The following excerpts are taken from that conversation

CVS has been known to be a Currency Exchange System provider. Elaborate on what caused CVS to expand its offering to become an AML Solution Provider. 

Having worked in the currency exchange space for two decades, it was a natural progression of events that enabled CVS to broaden the company’s scope of services. CVS’s clients often requested AML solutions, and although CVS had partners in the space to help clients address needs, solutions were often too limited in terms of scope or costly for budget-conscious customers. At CVS, we enjoy servicing clients over extended periods of time and this meant growing our services with quality solutions for a reasonable cost. 

Since its launch, the AML solution is now used by over a quarter of our clients and that number escalates quarter over quarter. 

“CurrencyXchanger has provisions for AML compliance that can be configured for different countries based on the local laws. “

Q. What are the various services your company provides? What are some of the APIs you offer?

CVS works with a variety of industries, including private investment, real estate, travel, tourism, and the gaming space. To service such a wide array of industries, CVS has numerous products that continuously evolve. We launched CXR Cloud last year, adding to the company’s robust CurrencyXchanger Software, Transaction Monitoring, KYC solutions, various API products, and Digital Signage apps.

While we focus on compliance elements, we do offer a select number of others, including sanction screening, live currency rates, and AML transaction monitoring.  

Q. What are the most important features an AML Solution provider should offer? 

This really begins with the trust between customers and CVS. That trust is earned through the quality of CVS solutions and the customer support services we offer. AML solutions should offer a variety of elements, such as transactional monitoring, background checks against sanction lists, thorough reporting, and ID verification. The most important portion of the application is the customizable rules that can be adjusted based on criteria, for example, amount of a transaction, type of transaction, scope, period of search, etc.

Q. How does your Sanction List Screening work? How do you offer continuous monitoring? 

Depending on the location of a client, various sanction lists are required to meet local regulatory body standards. 
Sanction lists are automatically updated daily and are directly connected to CVS servers. When a client enters a name, the name is searched against these auto-refreshed lists, and a record is taken of the search. They are time and date stamped for future proof and reference in case of audit or need to reconcile transactions.

Q. What is CXR Cloud, and why is it important? How can businesses benefit from it? 

CXR Cloud is CVS’s web-based solution that does not require installation, hardware, or an internal IT stack. It can be accessed remotely using a browser. It enables clients to have a scalable solution for multi-branch operations with multiple users. The management of MSBs can monitor and audit all branches within a single portal. Additionally, compliance officers and accountants can review transactions and manage them in real time.

Q. Everyone is moving towards Software as a Service. How is CurrencXchanger staying relevant in this environment? 

Almost all of CVS's services are SaaS-based. Through the evolution of CurrencyXchanger, we developed CXR Cloud for those who prefer a web-based solution. The business and revenue model around both software products are the same: SaaS.

Q. How can you compete with larger players in this industry? 

As the economy and industry shift, we are required to have a certain level of flexibility and agility in our solutions. This empowers us to evolve our existing software solutions with adaptable and customizable features. All of this is accomplished through our select partnerships and subsequent integrations, as well as specific features built by our in-house development team. 

Ultimately, a true differentiator of CVS is that we recognize the need for our clients to grow and scale their businesses but also have the option to pause growth and adjust based on economic conditions. Our solutions can bend to fit customer requirements, no matter where they are on their journey. We partner with our clients to ensure that we work alongside them to support their business goals.

Q. What is in store for Clear View Systems' future? 

Partnering with like-minded businesses is a focus for 2023 and 2024. Partnerships facilitate CVS's ability to make monumental changes for our clients with speed while maintaining quality. For example, this year CVS has partnered with Regula Forensics to enhance the ID Verification technology in our former applications. This provided us with the opportunity to enhance and speed up the onboarding process for all of our customers. 

Additionally, to further improve our sanction list screening services, we’ve partnered with KYC2020 and integrated their advanced screening technology. Also, we will continue to explore the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to support compliance officers with suspicious activity reporting and transaction monitoring.

Providing efficient financial services software solutions and accelerating the growth of small and medium businesses

Tiran Behrouz is the CEO and President of Clear View Systems. When he was a young boy, Tiran's father introduced him to the concepts of programming and how to write programs in BASIC. As personal computers didn’t exist at that time, he was working on a Pocket Computer that enabled him to write programs to solve simple math and geometric problems. Three years later, he created a battleship game on the ZX Spectrum. Tiran was very proud that he could write code and produce action. But, little did he realize at the time that this basic project would light a fire in him to pursue a career developing financial software. 

By 2003, Tiran was a full-time university student and simultaneously working at a software development firm. Working with a friend, they built and deployed the prototype of CurrencyXchanger. From there, the software evolved. On average, they release a new version every three months based on customer feedback and improvements. By comparison, most of their competitors release a new version every two years. "I think our frequent revisions really enable us to stay relevant to our customers," says Tiran on why customers trust Clear View Systems.

"Now, it gives me great pleasure to continue building for tomorrow — professionally and personally. With a recent addition to my family, I hope to create a legacy that my son can look up to and learn from," concludes Tiran Behrouz.