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Ali Niknam (born December 12, 1982) is a Dutch entrepreneur, book author, founder of TransIP, CEO and founder of bunq.[1][2][3][4]
In 2022, he gained public attention for leading bunq in a landmark legal battle against the Dutch Central Bank over the use of artificial intelligence in anti-money laundering compliance.
Biography
Ali Niknam was born in an Iranian family on December 12, 1982, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.[5][2] When he was 7 years old, the family moved to Gouda, Netherlands.[6] He graduated from secondary school at the Coornhert Gymnasium in Gouda and in 2007 received a bachelor's degree in technical informatics from the Delft University of Technology.[7][8]
In 2003, during university years, Niknam founded TransIP, a company that specialized in domain name registration and web hosting.[5][9][10] In 2014, he handed over the management of the company and in 2019, after the merging with the Belgian company Combell, TransIP was renamed team.blue[11][12] where he remained a board member.[13] In 2007, with his two partners, he founded a data center company The Datacenter Group. As of 2018 he remained a shareholder in the company at least.[2]
In 2011, Niknam wrote a book called Ondernemers hebben nooit geluk (Entrepreneurs are never lucky) covering his entrepreneurship experience.[14][15][16]
In 2022, together with Robert Vis and Joris Beckers, he founded the People for People Foundation, which supported people affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war.[4] Together, the three men donate €500 thousand per year.[17][18][19]
bunq
In 2012, Niknam launched a mobile bank named bunq in which he invested €98.7 million.[20][21][22] In May 2022, bunq announced that they had acquired the Belgium-based fintech organisation Tricount, which Niknam stated aligns with the values of bunq.[23][24][25] This acquisition saw Niknam's bank become the second largest neobank in the European Union.[23]
In October 2022, Niknam led the neobank in a legal dispute against the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) concerning the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.[26] The DNB had prohibited bunq from employing AI-driven methods for customer screening, asserting that such practices did not align with existing AML regulations.[27] Challenging this stance, bunq argued that AI and machine learning technologies could enhance the effectiveness of AML measures.[28]
The Dutch court ruled in favor of bunq,[29] concluding that the Dutch Central Bank had not sufficiently demonstrated that bunq's methodologies were non-compliant with AML laws. The court also stated that bunq needed to improve its procedures for verifying customers' sources of income, particularly for politically exposed persons.[30][31] Following the ruling, Niknam referred to the case as significant for the broader neobank sector.[32][29]
In 2023, bunq was valued at €1.65bn after a new funding round.[33][34][35]
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