Kiwi system fights money launderers

would help First AML in its push to expand.

‘‘We are excited to be partnering with First AML to help scale the company with many of the lessons we learned running Pushpay,’’ said Heaslip.

The big sell for First AML’S clients was that its automated system made checking prospective customers weren’t crooks faster, and more reliable.

‘‘Having been an accountant myself, I can empathise with the frustration the additional administrative burden weighing on companies needing to comply with the new regulations,’’ said Heaslip.

The company initially launched with seed backing from the Icehouse Ventures Flux Accelerator.

Cooper’s cofounders were Bion Behdin and Chris Caigou, who were working as corporate bankers when New Zealand first began cranking up its anti-money laundering regulation in 2013.

Cooper hoped to build what is sometimes referred to as an invisible exporter creating wealth for New Zealand by exporting services. Some back office service providers from New Zealand have hit the big time, and created millionaires on these shores.

They include the FNZ fintech business which created many New Zealand millionaires when Al Gore’s investment company bought a stake in it in 2018.

FNZ provided services for big fund managers around the world, and at the time the deal was done, it had over $670b in assets under administration held by around 5 million customers of some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including Standard Life Aberdeen, Santander, Lloyds Bank, Vanguard, Generali, Barclays, Quilter, UOB, Aviva, Zurich, UBS, and BNZ.