Reed Elsevier has made its largest acquisition in three years, snapping up a French software company that monitors financial transactions to check that they are not breaching economic sanctions.
The Anglo-Dutch company will pay £120 million for FircoSoft, which counts eight of the world’s ten largest financial institutions as its customers.
The French company is owned by two funds controlled by Rothschild Group and its management team. Its software is used to screen transactions against a list of countries and individuals that are barred from doing business either because of sanctions or suspected terrorist financing.
FircoSoft will be combined with Accuity, a software company that Reed Elsevier purchased for £343 million in 2011, which trawls financial information to spot evidence of money laundering.
Banks including