Client checks in three minutes, not forty-five.
Monaco’s law requires estate agents, notaries, lawyers, yacht brokers, jewellers and family offices to verify every new client. Most did it by hand across a dozen tabs. We built Trace so they do it in one, and we run it every day.
our own product · in production · built and run by bss works · French interface · EU-hosted
The job, before.
A new client meant an afternoon: eight sanctions websites, a PEP database, a press search, a spreadsheet to record it all, and a tool that said “match” without saying why.
Monaco’s Law 1.362 asks regulated professions to check clients at onboarding and to keep the file current, with evidence an inspector can read. The international tools were built for banks, priced for banks, and ignored the Monaco list. The small firms did it by hand and hoped.
We had been building software for Monaco companies since 2019 and saw the same afternoon lost in every one of them. So we built the tool we would have wanted, and put it in production.
What Trace does, in four steps.
Add the client
A person, a company or a vessel. Upload the passport and the MRZ is read and checked; upload the company extract and the form is pre-filled. Or type a name for a flash check.
18+ sources, in seconds
Eight government sanctions lists, three regulatory registers, Interpol red notices, 120,000+ politically exposed persons, 810,000+ offshore entities, the press and Wikipedia. Eight matching strategies catch spelling variants, aliases, transliterations from Cyrillic and entity suffixes; every match comes with a confidence score and the reason.
One dated PDF report
Summary page, detail per source, the passport image, the beneficial owners, a SHA-256 fingerprint of every list consulted and a QR code to verify the report online. Ready to be filed as it is.
Kept current in the dashboard
Every client stays in the dashboard with a checklist of what is in order and what is missing. Trace asks for the documents to add, reminds you when a client is due for re-verification according to their risk profile, masks names by default, and logs every action.
Every source, named.
Nothing hidden behind “18+”. These are the registers a Trace check consults, and the lists are refreshed every day.
People decide. Trace explains.
A match is never just a red light. Trace shows which list, which field matched, how confident it is and why, with the evidence attached, so the compliance officer can decide in a minute and defend the decision in an inspection. Confirmed matches and possible matches are kept apart on purpose.
How it is built and run.
the product
- Lists refreshed dailyThe Monaco asset-freezing list, around 6,000 entries, is pulled from the government source every morning; the others on their own schedules.
- Eight matching strategiesExact, edit distance, token sets, aliases, Cyrillic transliteration, entity suffixes, date of birth and nationality, combined into one confidence score.
- Reports that can be verifiedEach list consulted is fingerprinted with SHA-256 at the time of the check; the QR code on the report proves it was not altered since.
- Built for Monaco’s obligationsLaw 1.362, the AMSF guidelines, ten-year retention, French interface, and a library of plain-language guides for each profession.
the engineering
- Next.js and TypeScript, Postgres on SupabaseA modern, well-supported stack: fast to change, easy to audit, nothing exotic to maintain.
- EU hosting, GDPR, no resale of dataData stays in the European Union. Names are masked by default in the dashboard. A processing register and a designated DPO.
- Passport OCR and PDF generation in-houseThe MRZ is read with open-source OCR; the attestation PDFs are generated and signed by our own code, not a third-party service.
- Operated from Monaco by bss worksMonitoring, daily list refresh, support in French and English, and a person to call. This is the “run” step of our method, applied to our own product.
Trace is what every engagement with us ends in: working software, in production, with a number you can check and a person you can call.
If this looks like your problem.
Software built around your data
When no tool on the market does the job, we build it: screening and verification tools, internal search and assistants, client portals, automation around your own data. Working prototype in two weeks, then built, run and kept working. Trace started this way.
Documents that fill themselves
Contracts, client files, quotes and reports drafted from your templates and your data, checked against your rules, passed to a person to sign. Three weeks from first call to first document.
Law, accounting & notaries
AI agents for law firms, accountancies and notaries: client-verification files with Trace, documents drafted from your templates with every fact traced, the inbox sorted, the regulator’s evidence kept.
Asked about Trace.
Can we use Trace ourselves?
Yes. Trace is a product with its own site, a 14-day free trial and online sign-up at tracemonaco.com. Nothing to install.
Is it only for Monaco?
The obligations it is built around are Monaco’s, and the Monaco list is one of the few it checks that international tools skip. The sources and the engine are international, so if you have a similar need elsewhere, talk to us.
Could you build something like this for us?
That is the point of showing it. A checking tool around your own rules and data, with the reasoning shown and the audit trail kept, follows the same path: a two-week prototype on real data, then a build, then we run it.
Who is behind it, legally?
Trace is designed and operated by BSS, the Monaco company behind bss works (RCI 22P10095). The same person is accountable for both.
A checking tool of your own?
Thirty minutes to find out whether your rules and your data would fit the same shape. We will tell you if an existing product does it better.