Risk Values launched RV1 on 1 January 2002 and this interview was produced shortly in advance of launch.

Q. How did you come to be involved with Risk Values?

A. My background is in researching the values, beliefs and motivations of cultures. I have been a director of my own companies and worked with a variety of other research organizations and academic institutions worldwide.

My main area of expertise is in the application of socio-cultural knowledge into products and strategies for client organizations, primarily multinationals.

When Nigel Morris-Cotterill outlined the new wave of problems facing financial institutions as a result of the aftershocks of September 11, I was able to see how we could apply my knowledge and research to the identification of those who have the potential to abuse their relationship with a financial institution.

Q. What is interesting about the Risk Values project?

A. Working from a psychological point of view, understanding the psychology of financial morality within personal ethical systems, we have been able to devise an elegant solution, or - to be more accurate - one that looks simple, yet contains vast amounts of knowledge behind the actual format.

The first Risk Values product, RV1 is a quantum leap in "know your customer" compliance.

Q. Could other companies provide a similar product?

A. I don't think so. I think it's is unlikely that any other company could devise as simple and as elegant a solution in the foreseeable future and even then they would not have the depth of background research and data that is an outstanding feature of Risk Values.

Questions are based deeply in various strands of academic research, including psychology, sociology, and ethical philosophy going back over 50 years in addition to market and consumer research over the last 30 years in a wide variety of countries.

Even as RV1 is launched, continuing research is being conducted and new work is being developed even before the launch of this very simple and strong product.

Q. So, will Risk Values really help a bank, brokerage or other financial services business to sort the good from the bad?

A. Yes. Of course, we have to recognize the limitations of personality and statistical analysis but even so, the Risk Value assigned to an individual will help such businesses to focus on the accounts that are demonstrated as having the potential to be a high risk. The fact that a high proportion, more than two-thirds, of accounts will fall into the low risk category will mean that businesses can cut their monitoring costs.

You know, in advertising, it is a general tenet that companies waste half their budget but don't know which half. My research, and the application of it, over the years has been aimed at identifying the wastage and reducing it.

In money laundering, for example, banks say that they know that they have dirty money, but they just don't know where it is. RV1 gives an indication of where it is most likely to be.

In the run of the mill anti-money laundering software, the only basis for understanding the customer is the way he manages his accounts. And that data is, by definition, historical - although there are some predictive tools based upon past performance.

The original design brief of RV1 called for something quite different: it called for the knowledge of the customer, not the way he transacts. So transaction data could not be a basis for the analysis. And by excluding all racial and religious indicators, RV1 operates across cultures.

Put simply, RV1 allows the financial institution to know its customer, not just his money.