A corporate borrower draws down a large facility against receivables that look solid on paper. Eighteen months later, the receivables turn out to be invoices between related companies, the collateral has been pledged twice and the directors are living in another country. The credit file was complete. It just was not true.
Banks, fintechs, payment companies, lenders and investment firms carry risk that is easy to disguise and expensive to discover late. Our financial fraud investigation services help financial institutions verify customers, borrowers, partners and staff before problems start, and recover value when they do. As an international investigation firm headquartered in Dubai and backed by the 30+ years of GREVESGROUP®, we support banking and financial services clients in more than 100 countries.
Risk and Investigation Challenges in Financial Services
Financial institutions face a combination of fraud, regulatory and reputational risks that few other sectors match:
- Loan and credit fraud using forged financial statements, inflated collateral or fake receivables
- KYC failures, where customers hide their real owners, source of wealth or links to sanctioned persons
- Money laundering through shell companies, trade-based schemes and complex corporate structures
- Insider fraud, including collusion between staff and customers, and misuse of customer data
- Defaulting borrowers who move assets beyond reach before enforcement
- Fintech and payment fraud, including merchant fraud and fake onboarding documents
- Rising expectations from regulators on enhanced due diligence and third-party risk
Automated screening tools catch the obvious cases. The difficult ones need investigators who can verify what documents and databases cannot.
Our Investigation Services for Banks and Financial Institutions
Corporate Investigation
When fraud is suspected inside the bank or across a customer relationship, our bank fraud investigations establish how it happened and who benefited. We investigate insider collusion, fraudulent disbursements, misuse of accounts and trade finance fraud, combining record research, corporate network analysis and interviews. Reports are structured for internal committees, auditors and regulators.
Due Diligence
Our enhanced due diligence for banks covers high-risk customers, correspondent relationships, private banking clients and corporate borrowers. We verify ultimate beneficial owners, source of wealth and source of funds, and review sanctions, PEP and adverse media exposure in local languages. Pre-lending due diligence confirms that the borrower, its promoters and its collateral are what they claim to be.
Background Check
Regulated roles need regulated standards. Our fit and proper checks and executive background checks verify senior hires, board members and relationship managers, including qualifications, employment history, directorships, litigation and regulatory records. We also screen high-volume roles in operations, collections and customer service.
Claim Investigation
Banks increasingly sell bancassurance, credit life and loan protection policies. Our claim investigators verify death, disability and loss claims linked to loan portfolios, so genuine claims are settled quickly and fraudulent ones do not become write-offs.
Private Investigation
When a borrower defaults and disappears, our debtor tracing and skip tracing services locate individuals and companies for recovery and legal action. We also carry out lawful commercial surveillance to verify whether a business is still operating from its declared premises.
Process Service
Recovery actions often require serving claims, statutory demands and judgments on borrowers abroad. Our international process service handles personal service and Hague Convention service with court-ready proof, keeping recovery timelines on track.
IP Investigation
Financial brands are targeted by fake investment platforms and look-alike websites. We investigate the misuse of bank names and trademarks, identify the operators and gather evidence for legal action and takedowns.
Brand Protection
Phishing sites, cloned social media accounts and fake loan apps using your brand damage customer trust fast. Our brand protection team identifies impersonation, traces the people behind it and supports removal and enforcement.
Asset Tracing and Recovery Support
For non-performing loans and fraud losses, asset tracing for banks is often the difference between a write-off and a recovery. We identify property, shareholdings, vehicles, vessels and business interests held by borrowers and guarantors, including assets moved into the names of relatives or offshore companies. Findings support freezing orders, enforcement and restructuring negotiations.
Regulatory Pressure on Financial Institutions
Regulators expect financial institutions to know their customers properly, not just to collect documents. In the UAE, anti-money laundering obligations under Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018 and Central Bank guidance require a risk-based approach, with enhanced measures for higher-risk relationships. Similar expectations apply across the GCC, Europe and Asia under FATF standards. When a customer turns out to be a front for a sanctioned person or a laundering network, "we ran the database check" is rarely an adequate defence. Independent investigation of high-risk relationships gives compliance teams evidence that they went further when the risk required it.
Typical Engagements
The scenarios below are illustrative examples of the kind of work we carry out in this sector.
Pre-lending verification
A lender is about to extend a working capital facility to a trading company. We verify the company's real owners, visit its warehouse, confirm key customers exist and check the promoters' litigation history in two countries. The findings show a director's undisclosed insolvency abroad, and the facility is restructured with stronger security.
Enhanced due diligence on a private banking client
A bank needs to understand how a prospective client made his wealth. We trace his business history across three jurisdictions, confirm the sale of a company that generated the funds and rule out links to sanctioned individuals, giving the compliance committee a documented basis for approval.
Recovery after default
A borrower stops paying and the promoters leave the UAE. We locate them, identify property held through a relative's company and help the bank's lawyers serve proceedings abroad.
What You Receive
Each engagement ends with a report built for credit, compliance or recovery decisions: an executive summary with a risk rating, verified findings with sources, an ownership chart where relevant, identified red flags and recommended actions. Supporting documents are attached for your audit trail.
How We Work with Financial Institutions
We fit into your existing risk framework. Compliance teams can refer individual EDD cases or send portfolios for periodic review. Credit and recovery teams can instruct us case by case. Every engagement starts with an NDA and a clear scope, and every report separates verified facts from intelligence, so your decisions and audit trail stay defensible.
Why Financial Institutions Choose Risk Investigators
Beyond the database
In-country investigators confirm what automated screening cannot, especially in higher-risk markets.
Regulator-ready reporting
Structured, sourced reports that support compliance decisions and audit review.
Global recovery reach
Asset tracing, debtor tracing and process service in more than 100 countries.
Discretion
Subjects are never alerted, and client identities are never disclosed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is enhanced due diligence in banking?
Enhanced due diligence is a deeper investigation of high-risk customers or relationships. It covers beneficial ownership, source of wealth and funds, sanctions and PEP exposure, adverse media and, where needed, discreet source enquiries.
Can you verify a borrower's collateral and business before lending?
Yes. Our pre-lending due diligence verifies the borrower's ownership, management, business operations, assets and litigation history, including site visits to confirm the business exists and operates as declared.
Do you help banks trace defaulting borrowers?
Yes. We locate defaulting borrowers and guarantors and identify their assets in the UAE and abroad to support recovery, enforcement and legal action.
Do you investigate internal fraud at banks?
Yes. We investigate insider fraud, collusion with customers, misuse of accounts and data leaks, working with your compliance, audit and legal teams.
Do you work with fintechs and payment companies?
Yes. We support fintechs, payment service providers and digital lenders with merchant due diligence, KYC investigations, fraud investigations and brand impersonation cases.
Do you investigate trade-based money laundering?
Yes. We verify the existence and activity of trading counterparties, check whether goods and shipments are genuine and identify links between buyers, sellers and beneficial owners that suggest laundering.
Can your reports support our regulatory file?
Yes. Our reports are sourced, structured and dated, so they can sit in your customer file and support your decisions during audits and regulatory reviews.
Do you investigate customers in higher-risk or sanctioned jurisdictions?
Yes, on a compliance-focused basis. We help banks identify sanctions exposure, hidden ownership and adverse links for customers and counterparties connected to higher-risk jurisdictions, so they can decide whether a relationship can proceed lawfully. All work is carried out within applicable law.