AML

Caulis to Establish "Grid Data KYC" in Partnership with 10 Nationwide Power Companies

Norbert Gehrke

22 Sep 2025 — 3 min read

Caulis will begin providing "Grid Data KYC" in partnership with 10 electricity transmission and distribution companies nationwide, utilizing electricity contract information to simultaneously achieve prevention of fraudulent account opening, enhancement of ongoing customer management, and reduction of management costs. The services is expected to launch on October 15, 2025.

This service will enable specified business operators such as financial institutions, fund transfer service providers, and credit card companies to perform identity verification more efficiently and at lower cost than before.

The 2023 amendment to the Enforcement Regulations of the Electricity Business Act allows electric power companies to use customer information for official purposes. In April 2024, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Personal Information Protection Commission, and the National Public Safety Commission expressed the view that financial institutions and electric power companies can compare customer information for anti-money laundering purposes.

(1) Prevention of Fraudulent Account Opening

By cross-referencing electricity contract information with customer information, Grid Data KYC can determine the authenticity of addresses submitted by customers with high precision, preventing fraudulent account opening using fake addresses or vacant properties.

(2) Enhancement of Ongoing Customer Management

Even after account opening, Grid Data KYC will regularly verify address accuracy using the latest electricity contract information, enabling efficient personal information updates without relying on conventional analog methods such as postal confirmation.

(3) Management Cost Reduction

By significantly digitalizing postal address confirmation work through pre-mailing cross-referencing, Grid Data KYC can reduce postal costs that previously increased proportionally with the number of accounts.

(4) Nationwide Coverage

By partnering with 10 electricity transmission and distribution companies nationwide, Grid Data KYC will cover all of Japan, enabling uniform, high-precision fraud detection without regional disparities.

Company Overview

Caulis Corporation operates under the mission "Co-creating information infrastructure to make the world better," developing and providing technology to detect unauthorized access on the internet. Their main service, Fraud Alert, currently provides identity fraud detection services at touchpoints connecting financial institutions and other businesses with consumers.

In today's society where real-world transactions are increasingly closely connected to the internet, ensuring that "the person you are communicating with is truly who they claim to be" is essential for transaction security.

This service digitizes identity verification processes that previously relied on postal address confirmation, achieving both cost reduction and improved accuracy simultaneously. To establish a nationwide uniform system, Caulis has formed business partnerships with all 10 general electricity transmission and distribution companies across Japan.

Caulis aims to protect citizens' assets from criminals and provide social infrastructure that realizes a safe and reliable transaction society through this service.

Background

In recent years, internet-based financial transactions have become indispensable infrastructure in daily life. However, fraudulent account opening and identity theft have increased rapidly. According to National Police Agency statistics, damages from unauthorized remittances via internet banking reached approximately 2.996 billion yen in 2023.

Furthermore, as a result of the 4th Mutual Evaluation of Japan by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Japan was designated as a "priority follow-up country," with particular criticism of insufficient "ongoing customer management" after account opening. In response to this situation, while the importance of identity verification has increased for specified business operators, management costs have surged due to dependence on conventional verification methods such as postal mail confirmation.

Future Outlook

Caulis considers the impact of this matter on our current fiscal year performance to be minimal. The impact on performance from the next fiscal year onwards will be disclosed when announcing next year's performance forecast. Should any material matters requiring disclosure arise, Caulis will promptly announce them.