How does Multilingual NLP work?
Multilingual NLP takes many forms, but essentially, it allows for computational programs to understand the language of a document as well as contextual nuances. It also has the ability to extract exact information and provide key insights. Multilingual NLP technology can process and analyse vast amounts of data that would otherwise be impossible, or incredibly labour and time-intensive to do.
smartKYC’s COO, Hugo Chamberlain explains Multilingual NLP further in this video:
Benefits of Multilingual NLP processes
Scanning large amounts of data in documents, websites, media, and databases for information that is either suggestive of risk or is simply useful to know is a necessary step when carrying out due diligence and compliance tasks. What’s more, in our global economy, it is vital to be able to retrieve information in many different languages. As smartKYC COO, Hugo Chamberlain explains: “Banks with an international element to their client base, whether it is by way of a client’s birth, domicile or footprint, monitoring the English language content alone will expose the bank to the risk of missing important information. Extracting intelligence with precision from foreign language sources is essential.”
Financial institutions need a system that allows them to conduct enhanced background checks, no matter the language or location. This presents significant challenges due to names and various permutations that need to be searched with linguistic and cultural sensitivity. What’s more, multiple sources in multiple languages need to be searched to ensure no risk-relevant intelligence is missed.
smartKYC’s multilingual NLP system does all of this, at speed and at scale. This enables financial institutions to conduct enhanced background checks, even if they are international in scope, effectively and efficiently.
Common misconceptions
In the financial sector, one of the main misconceptions around multilingual NLP is not necessarily to do with the technology itself but the assumption that the language of finance and mainstream press is English. This is no longer the case, especially with the rise in online blogs, social media, podcasts and other publications worldwide. News items and controversies are reported in multiple languages and at an astounding volume. Take, for example, the number of dailies published in Hindi: 1,000, with circulations of around 80 million, compared to just 250 English dailies with half the number of circulations.
This, coupled with predictions of Asian countries outpacing the global average in terms of ultra-high net worth clients in just a few years, means that financial institutions need to monitor massive amounts of media and in multiple languages in order to avoid risk.
How smartKYC’s process is different
- Multilingual
smartKYC’s multilingual NLP technology identifies all textual elements in a piece of text, in over 35 languages and in multiple writing systems, including Latin, Chinese, Arabic, and Devanagari. It reviews the findings in the original language first, to avoid any loss of meaning, and then produces results in English for review.
- Not just name screening
smartKYC’s system has the ability to score findings on relevance to the search ‘subject,’ therefore carrying out identity screening in media content, not just name screening.
- Precise results
Using sophisticated rules, the smartKYC system extracts useful, precise intelligence.
- Actionable alerts
All of the content is synthesised into facts and key need-to-know intelligence. You will receive alerts that allow you to act immediately.
For more on our cost-effective automated KYC solutions, please book a demo.
