BRUSSELS, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EastNets is pleased to announce that 28 financial institutions are now live users of a real-time watchlist feed, delivered securely over blockchain.

In partnership with Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, EastNets successfully commercialized a feed of sanction alerts over a private blockchain network. EastNets ChainFeed™ is now featured within EastNets' watchlist screening solution, SafeWatch Filtering. Today, all financial institutions who are actively using EastNets SafeWatch have access to Dow Jones's high-quality sanction alerts carried over a private blockchain network directly to the screening engine, EastNets SafeWatch Filtering.

Furthermore, the secure nature of the blockchain-enabled EastNets solution restricts the opportunity for malevolent actors to intercept and/or manipulate watchlist data.

Deya Innab, EastNets Chief Strategy and Product Officer, said: "We continuously look to new technology as an opportunity to enhance our customer experience. The question will always be: how and which technology should we use to bring greater value to our customers?

"We understand the challenges and risks associated with manual updates of watchlists. Our customers need a timely, secure courier to carry watchlist feeds from end-to-end. This innovative solution uses blockchain technology to overcome these challenges. Designing and testing a suitable solution was challenging, but we are delighted to lead the industry with a real-time, secure watchlist update solution that is actively used by leading institutions that now meet their compliance obligations every minute of the day."

In October 2018, in partnership with Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, EastNets showcased the first proof of concept (POC) for a real-time, blockchain-based compliance watchlist. At this time, EastNets ChainFeed™ solution provides a continuously updated feed of Dow Jones's sanction alerts.

About EastNets

For over 35 years EastNets has served as a leading global provider of compliance and payment solutions for the financial services sector. With regional offices in major cities, EastNets supports over 750 organisations including some of the biggest financial institutions in the world. Solutions including en.SafeWatch deliver automated, industry-leading AML and fraud protection that helps organisations stay ahead of a changing fraud, compliance and regulatory landscape.

About Dow Jones Risk & Compliance

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance is a global provider of third party risk management and regulatory compliance solutions. Working with clients across the globe, it delivers research tools and outsourced services for on-boarding, vetting and investigation to help companies comply with anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, corruption and economic sanctions regulation in mitigating third party risk. The Dow Jones Risk & Compliance business expanded revenues by 21% in the second quarter of fiscal 2020 — its twelfth consecutive quarter of growth above 20%. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV).