Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's biggest lender, will join foreign peers in using advanced technology to spot illegal activity, sources close to the matter said.
The bank will partner with British giant HSBC and Singapore's OCBC Bank in using the latest information technology and financial services software to prevent money laundering and terrorism-related transactions, the sources said Wednesday.
The banking unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. will use the collaboration to step up efforts to use its expertise in preventing illegal financial transactions, the sources said.
The bank plans to utilize such advanced technologies as artificial intelligence, encryption and biometrics, they said. Japan's financial institutions are said to be lagging overseas banks in this field.
In a trial run later this year in Singapore, the three institutions will employ blockchain technology to make it easier to spot potentially illegal transactions, according to the sources.
Blockchain technology puts transaction records under the management of multiple computers that are connected to a single network, thereby helping to better track transactions and prevent data falsification.