Anti-Money Laundering: SCHUFA Acquires STRATECO

Wies­ba­den – SCHUFA Holding AG is acqui­ring STRATECO GmbH and syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its KYC and compli­ance busi­ness to serve as a second stra­te­gic pillar along­side credit assess­ment. The goal is to streng­then its posi­tion as an inde­pen­dent, tech­­no­­logy-driven part­ner for corpo­rate clients. The “SCHUFA Compli­ance Suite” will inte­grate seam­lessly into the German finan­cial ecosys­tem and estab­lish itself as the de facto stan­dard for compli­ant and effi­ci­ent compli­ance solutions. 

The focus is on combi­ning the comple­men­tary exper­tise of Clari­Lab (KYCnow)—a SCHUFA subsi­diary estab­lished in 2020—and STRATECO under the umbrella of the “SCHUFA Compli­ance Suite.” While SCHUFA, through Clari­Lab, contri­bu­tes scalable, stan­dar­di­zed KYC proces­ses in parti­cu­lar, STRATECO comple­ments the offe­ring with 25 years of expe­ri­ence prima­rily in corpo­rate and invest­ment banking. This crea­tes an inte­gra­ted offe­ring that combi­nes data, tech­no­logy, and opera­tio­nal services across the entire KYC value chain and provi­des finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons with compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons. At the same time, SCHUFA is actively support­ing the Euro­pean harmo­niza­tion of anti-money laun­de­ring efforts through this approach and addres­sing the growing demand for KYC services in the finan­cial sector. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. 

With this acqui­si­tion, STRATECO will become a wholly owned subsi­diary of SCHUFA and a sister company of ClariLab.

Anti-Money Laun­de­ring: SCHUFA Beco­mes the Go-To Part­ner for Banks

“By combi­ning STRATECO and KYCnow, we are crea­ting a unique, inte­gra­ted end-to-end solu­tion for our custo­mers that spans the entire KYC value chain. In this way, we are brin­ging toge­ther exper­tise and tech­no­logy to conti­nuously increase our coll­ec­tive impact in the fight against money laun­de­ring. Accor­ding to esti­ma­tes, more than 100 billion euros are ille­gally funneled into the finan­cial system in Germany every year,” says Tanja Birk­holz, CEO of SCHUFA Holding AG.

“Our anti-money laun­de­ring efforts and those of SCHUFA comple­ment each other perfectly,” says Laurence Dick­ler of STRATECO. “SCHUFA brings to the table, above all, the high quality of its data­base and the strong trust in its brand name. By combi­ning our efforts, we have the poten­tial to become the market leader,” adds Dickler. 

“The Euro­pean Anti-Money Laun­de­ring Regu­la­tion will bring about lasting chan­ges to the market and further increase the demand for high-quality data, smart tech­no­lo­gies, and effi­ci­ent proces­ses. Toge­ther with STRATECO and SCHUFA, we are laying the ground­work to support our custo­mers through this trans­for­ma­tion,” says Tobias Weber, CEO of KYCnow. 

Expan­ding into Higher Market Segments with STRATECO
Based in Bad Homburg, foun­ded 25 years ago, and employ­ing appro­xi­m­ately 160 full-time staff, STRATECO poss­es­ses exten­sive regu­la­tory and proce­du­ral exper­tise, in-depth expe­ri­ence in regu­la­tory consul­ting projects and mana­ged services enga­ge­ments, as well as a strong track record with Tier 1 and Tier 2 insti­tu­ti­ons. With this move, STRATECO expands SCHUFA’s port­fo­lio to include high-end case coverage in this highly criti­cal area. The two compa­nies have a long-stan­­ding part­ner­ship. STRATECO gene­ra­tes appro­xi­m­ately 90 percent of its reve­nue from services rela­ted to compli­ance and regu­la­tory affairs. 

Clari­Lab, foun­ded six years ago, opera­tes the KYCnow tech­no­logy plat­form and has appro­xi­m­ately 700 custo­mers, inclu­ding 400 banks. The platform’s main func­tion is to effi­ci­ently auto­mate stan­dar­di­zed KYC proces­ses. The two compa­nies comple­ment each other perfectly and form an end-to-end KYC value chain. 

The acqui­si­tion is a response to market complexity

The acqui­si­tion is also a response to the incre­asing requi­re­ments for anti-money laun­de­ring in the wake of Euro­pean regu­la­tion and the new EU super­vi­sory struc­tures surroun­ding AMLA. These are leading to grea­ter comple­xity in data and proces­ses, as well as more frequent audits. 

With its approach, SCHUFA is speci­fi­cally posi­tio­ning itself as a natio­nal provi­der. Howe­ver, it alre­ady colla­bo­ra­tes with the German bran­ches of seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and will incre­asingly support its custo­mers in Euro­pean markets in the future. In this way, SCHUFA also helps safe­guard the sove­reig­nty of the German banking sector. 

SCHUFA

The Asso­cia­tion for Gene­ral Credit Protection—SCHUFA—helps people fulfill their finan­cial goals in a straight­for­ward, secure, and afforda­ble way. We work to ensure that people can conduct busi­ness quickly and conve­ni­ently and that compa­nies can place their trust in them—even without knowing them perso­nally. We reduce the risk of default for provi­ders of credit, goods, and services, which makes it possi­ble to do more busi­ness on favorable terms. In this way, we support growth and prospe­rity in Germany. SCHUFA is an important part of our economy. Using state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, we analyze and evaluate over 350,000 inqui­ries every day. This allows us to align the needs of consu­mers with the secu­rity requi­re­ments of provi­ders. We gene­rate credit scores and offer solu­ti­ons that help indi­vi­du­als and busi­nesses protect them­sel­ves against iden­tity theft and fraud. We make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to preven­ting money laun­de­ring and help limit the resul­ting econo­mic damage. We also provide a plat­form for the cross-indus­­try exch­ange of sustaina­bi­lity data. SCHUFA employs appro­xi­m­ately 1,000 people and gene­ra­ted appro­xi­m­ately 293 million euros in reve­nue in the 2025 fiscal year. 

The SCHUFA commitment

SCHUFA has conti­nuously expan­ded its social commit­ment in recent years, contri­bu­ting to a trans­pa­rent finan­cial culture and debt preven­tion in Germany. As an infor­ma­tion service provi­der for busi­nesses and consu­mers, many projects focus prima­rily on educa­tion and data protec­tion. The most important projects at a glance: The annu­ally published Risk and Credit Compass exami­nes the consu­mer compe­tence and credit beha­vior of German citi­zens. The SCHUFA Consu­mer Advi­sory Board discus­ses current consu­mer issues and deve­lops recom­men­da­ti­ons for SCHUFA. The SCHUFA Ombuds­man acts as a neutral media­tor, addres­sing consu­mer concerns. With the educa­tio­nal initia­ti­ves “Wirt­schafts­Werk­statt – Nimm deine Finan­zen in die Hand” (Econo­mic Work­shop – Take Control of Your Finan­ces) and “SCHUFA macht Schule” (SCHUFA Goes to School), SCHUFA is commit­ted to deve­lo­ping finan­cial liter­acy among young people and young adults. Through the FIX study, SCHUFA advo­ca­tes for grea­ter finan­cial parti­ci­pa­tion, and as a part­ner of Special Olym­pics Germany, it is commit­ted to the inclu­sion and parti­ci­pa­tion of people with intellec­tual disabilities.