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Absa Group Limited, one of South Africa's largest financial services organizations, has selected Fortent*, the market leading best practice anti-money laundering solution for retail and correspondent banking

October 3, 2005 - Absa Group Limited, one of South Africa's largest financial services organizations, has selected Fortent, the market leading best practice anti-money laundering solution for retail and correspondent banking. Absa, voted the most admired financial services company in South Africa in 2004, has over 32000 employees, assets in excess of R345,7 billion and South Africa's largest Internet banking customer base.

With the South African banking industry being subjected to increased regulatory pressure, Absa joins a growing list of financial service providers that have adopted the Fortent best of breed technology to detect money laundering and protect against fraud. The last few years have seen enormous efforts from around the globe in order to tackle this problem and improve the basis for suspicious activity reporting. In South Africa, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 2001 (FICA), imposed duties on certain institutions to introduce new anti-money laundering requirements.

"We wanted to deploy the very best solution available and did an exhaustive review of all the main solution providers in the market. The Fortent technology demonstrated the most effective detection capabilities and will enable us to monitor every transaction and each individual account for the subtle and complex activities that indicate suspicious behavior," commented Roy Melnick, Group Money Laundering Control Officer, Absa. "We have partnered with Fortent and IBM to implement the system which will form the cornerstone of our comprehensive AML program. The Fortent technology will assist us in achieving regulatory compliance, risk mitigation and most importantly brand protection."

Fortent monitors nearly 400 million accounts a day, working with regional, national and global banks. Its software enables organizations to automatically interpret and act upon vast amounts of data, assisting regulatory compliance, risk mitigation and brand protection. Every transaction is monitored for unusual activity, immediately notifying compliance staff about those that may require further investigation and providing them with an evidential audit to effectively manage the compliance process.

"We are delighted that Absa, who has built a strong reputation as an innovative and dynamic financial services organization, has selected our Anti-Money Laundering solution. They join a growing list of South African banks adopting Fortent technology to protect themselves against money laundering and fraud," commented Sandy Jaffee, CEO, Fortent.

*Fortent was acquired by Actimize on August 31, 2009