Sonar is a member-run data consortium that facilitates real-time sharing of insights on First-Party and Counterparty Risk among financial institutions and fintechs to combat financial crime. By verifying the credentials of all parties involved in transactions, Sonar helps prevent money laundering and emerging fraud trends while ensuring compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and FinCEN 314b regulations.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Financial institutions and fintechs often struggle to gain a comprehensive, real-time view of first-party and counterparty risk due to data silos and a lack of information sharing across the industry. This fragmented visibility allows criminals to exploit vulnerabilities across different financial services, making it difficult to detect and prevent financial crime effectively. Traditional bank-led consortiums often exclude fintechs and merchants, further limiting the scope of shared data and hindering the ability to identify emerging fraud trends.
Solution
Sonar provides a member-run data consortium that facilitates the real-time sharing of anonymized risk insights among a diverse range of financial services organizations, including banks, fintechs, and merchants. By monitoring transactions across various financial rails, Sonar enables members to gain a more complete view of an entity's financial footprint and detect potential fraud and money laundering activities. The platform leverages a secure, collaborative environment where members contribute and receive risk signals, enhancing their ability to identify linkages between identities, devices, and behavior patterns indicative of financial crime. Data sharing occurs under established legal frameworks, including the USA PATRIOT Act Section 314(b), GLBA, and FCRA, ensuring compliance and data protection.
Target Audience
Sonar's primary customers are financial institutions, fintechs, card networks, payment processors, and merchants seeking to enhance their fraud detection and prevention capabilities through real-time data sharing and collaborative risk management.
Features
- Real-time risk signals for entities conducting financial transactions across multiple rails (credit/debit, ACH, RTP, FedNow, A2A, P2P apps).
- Anonymized data sharing under USA PATRIOT Act Section 314(b), GLBA, and FCRA.
- Risk solutions for First-party Fraud, AML Compliance, and Credit Risk.
- Detection of friendly fraud, ACH fraud, APP fraud, and mule accounts.
- Identification of linkages between identities, devices, and behavior patterns.
- Flags for suspicious transaction activity indicative of money laundering.
- Risk scores, reputation levels, device and behavior intelligence.
- API access for sending identifiable information and receiving real-time risk assessments.