The team at Alessa is celebrating this week!
We are excited to announce that Alessa has been acquired by Toronto and New York-based Tier1 Financial Solutions (Tier1). For those who do not know, Tier1 is a leading provider of client relationship management (“CRM”) solutions.
With nearly 20,000 CRM users in capital markets, investment banking and investment management industry worldwide, Tier1 deeply understands the need to digitally transform business processes and the value of providing solutions that remove manual processes and replace internally built-solutions that are costly to develop and maintain. The new combined product portfolio provides opportunities for both Alessa and Tier1 customers.
No short-term changes
In the short-term there will be no changes in either organization. Alessa will operate as a separate business entity under the continued leadership of Andrew Simpson who will remain as Chief Operating Officer for Alessa.
Andrew Simpson will report to Jiro Okochi who previously was President at Tier1 and has now assumed the role of CEO role as of January 1, 2021.
In terms of product offering, the Alessa division will continue offering compliance and fraud prevention solutions to banks, credit unions, money services businesses (MSBs), casinos and fintechs looking to comply with global anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. Alessa will also continue to serve organizations in retail, healthcare, insurance and other corporate sectors with its continuous controls monitoring and fraud prevention capabilities.
“We are excited to be part of the Tier1 family as this allows us to be even more aggressive in our barrier-breaking mindset to deliver powerful solutions to the multi-billion-dollar compliance and fraud prevention market. All our customers, partners and team members will benefit from this acquisition as it enables us to accelerate delivery on our bold promises.”
Andrew Simpson, Chief Operating Officer, Alessa
(Big!) Growth plans
As part of the Tier1 family, Alessa will be able to accelerate its growth plans and build more capabilities into the product to continue the evolution of its compliance, controls monitoring and fraud prevention capabilities. This exciting new path will be a journey that benefits all our customers, partners and team members.
For Tier1, the acquisition of Alessa will enable the company to add a new element in its journey towards the digitalization of the entire client relationship workflow and lead to a “single source of truth” of client data. In turn, bank customers will enjoy a better on-boarding experience which can be frustrating if regulatory compliance is delayed with too many manual processes.
Finally, the addition of the Alessa solution to the Tier1 portfolio will also enable this fast-growing company to aggressively compete in the multi-billion-dollar financial crime management market and expand its presence across industries and geographies.
“Regulatory requirements are no longer just a bank compliance department issue but an important part of front-office workflow and client lifecycle management. We are very excited about joining forces with Alessa and together accelerating the digital transformation of our client’s transactional workflow.”
Jiro Okochi, CEO of Tier1 Financial Solutions
Solutions for banking and casino sectors
For capital markets, investment banking and investment management worldwide, Tier1 will continue to offer (and grow) its client relationship and engagement solutions. Alessa will be an AML compliance solution (with due diligence, sanctions and watch list screening, transaction monitoring, regulatory reporting, workflows, case management and advanced analytics capabilities) that is available to purchase through subscription. Alessa’s fraud prevention solution with advanced analytics, like anomaly detection and machine learning, will also be offered under the Tier1 banner.
For other types of banking institutions, credit unions, money services businesses (MSBs), payment providers, casinos, gaming, insurance and fintechs, Alessa will be sold by Tier1 Financial Solutions and will continue to offer due diligence, sanctions and watch list screening, transaction monitoring, regulatory reporting, workflows, case management and advanced analytics capabilities as part of its AML compliance solution. Tier1 will also offer Alessa’s fraud prevention capabilities with advanced analytics, like anomaly detection and machine learning.
Solutions for other sectors
Alessa will continue to support insurance companies with its claims monitoring and fraud prevention capabilities. The product will now be sold under the Tier1 banner.
For companies in retail, healthcare, food, energy, manufacturing, high-tech and utilities, Alessa will continue to offers its various continuous controls monitoring (CCM) and fraud prevention solutions. This includes monitoring transactions related to tax and customs, retail, purchase card, procurement, travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses, payroll and more. It also includes its anti-corruption and anti-bribery solutions for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) applications.
Existing CCM customers will either purchase Alessa services under the Tier1 banner or continue existing agreements with one of Alessa’s valued partners. New customers, depending on their location, will either purchase Alessa under the Tier1 banner or that of a valued partner.
Did we mention we are excited?
Alessa has experienced exponential growth in the past five years. This acquisition by Tier1 is a recognition of our accomplishments, market presence and aggressive growth plans. The company plans to invest further into Alessa, which will enable us to do even more. In return Tier1 is excited about the new product prospects and the opportunity to develop close relationships with Alessa customers in new sectors and geographies.
We hope that you will continue to be with us in this journey. It is truly exciting!
