Ince launches integrated specialist sanctions compliance solution with Windward

International legal and professional services firm, Ince, has launched an enhanced specialist sanctions compliance solution through a co-operation agreement with Windward, the Predictive Intelligence company applying AI to transform global maritime trade. The collaboration marks the development of another managed service solution for InceMaritime, Ince's integrated legal advisory, business consultancy and technology offering for the maritime sector.

By accessing Windward's highly advanced data analysis that are based on AI and machine learning to provide strategic insights on complex and ambiguous sanctions compliance scenarios, InceMaritime is offering a dynamic solution that mitigates sanctions risk, demonstrates rigorous due diligence and helps avoid costly penalties. This is supported by Ince's collaboration with New York based law firm, Seward & Kissel LLP, to enable clients to obtain sanctions legal advice covering the EU, England & Wales and U.S. sanctions applications, together with the new best risk analysis and reporting tools available, all under one roof.

The global political landscape continues to be an exceedingly complex arena. Requirements to address maritime and sanctions risks are now integral to financial, operational and political processes. This is putting immense pressure on organisations to demonstrate deeper knowledge and due diligence within their sanctions compliance strategies, particularly in light of increased accountability under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020. Within this context, InceMaritime has identified that existing investigation processes and tools can be slow, fragmented and too rigid for the speed at which businesses need to operate. More importantly, this approach can be limiting for identifying and interpreting the nuances associated with identifying all risks in order to make informed decisions.

This new proposition will enable charterers, insurers, owners, investors, brokers, ship operators, financial institutions and defence agencies to benefit from a smarter, faster and forward-looking approach to risk mitigation. For example, Windward fuses multiple sources, including a variety of data sets, weather, AIS transmissions, satellite, radio, and more to create a range of insights that are driven by AI and machine learning to develop intelligence on vessels, cargo and owners. It combines a series of risk indicators such as ownership and registration that underpin traditional due diligence processes with behavioural analysis to interpret potentially suspicious activity and anticipate next steps as well as their implications. With access to this cutting-edge intelligence, InceMaritime will be able to determine the best immediate approaches for clients to protect against risks but also to take pre-emptive action on mitigating future vulnerabilities.

Commenting on the announcement, Julian Clark, Global Senior Partner at Ince said:

"Evaluating sanctions risks and developing appropriate strategies is an ongoing challenge. As political agendas are likely to remain fluid and complex, specialist maritime sanctions advice needs to be powered by dynamic, intuitive data. Our agreement with Windward means that InceMaritime will be uniquely positioned to use best-in-class intelligence to inform our advice so that we can empower companies to manage current and future risks to build their resilience. Also, by applying such rigour, we will be able to help companies to demonstrate the robustness of their mitigation approach in the event of any incidents."

Ami Daniel, CEO and Co-Founder at Windward, said:

"We are excited to work with Ince, to enhance the InceMaritime solution with our best-in-class technology to help its customers better mitigate risk. Our big data and machine learning capabilities provide Ince's clientele with the ability to streamline manual processes and provides them with additional layers of insights that automatically connects the dots, pinpoints relevant intelligence, as well as provides a risk assessment based on their specific risk appetite."

Bruce G. Paulsen, Co-Head of Seward & Kissel's Litigation Department and Head of its Sanctions Group, said:

"We are delighted to collaborate with Ince and InceMaritime, a leader in the maritime financial crimes compliance space. We look forward to assisting clients with respect to U.S. economic and trade sanctions, which have expanded considerably in their breadth and reach over the past decade.  We expect the U.S. to continue its use of sanctions in the future, which has targeted certain practices in the shipping industry, and we look forward to helping clients navigate this often challenging regulatory environment."