Adverse Media includes negative and bad information about customers, businesses, or brands. Information is discovered in many sources, and this negative news reveals whether a person is involved in any crime. Adverse Media data reveals crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, organized crime, financial fraud, human trafficking, and many more. Collaborating with people or companies with an Adverse Media profile carries some risks. A striking example is that doing business with individuals or businesses with Adverse Media data can expose companies to the risk of money laundering, making them part of a terrorist financing channel.
Companies should support AML compliance processes with Adverse Media Screening and Monitoring processes, as well as PEP and Sanction screening in Customer Onboarding processes. Adverse Media Screening, which is a very important part of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Knows Your Customer (KYC) processes, allows companies to identify and protect their customers and partners from risks.
Effective Adverse Media Screening Techniques for Business
Adverse Media and Negative News have many sources where they can be found. All news channels should be scanned by adverse media screening software. Since individuals or organizations with an Adverse Media profile are likely to be involved in crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and financial smuggling, companies need to know their Adverse Media resources to know these risks. Here are some Adverse Media resources:
Sanction Lists
It is known that organizations on the sanction lists are involved in suspicious operations or commit a crime. When businesses collaborate with another company, they can scan existing sanction lists and know who they're working with. The main sanction lists are OFAC sanction lists, HMT Financial Sanction Lists, UN consolidated lists, and EU consolidated lists.
Regulatory Databases
Many financial authorities regularly publish monthly press containing the disciplinary penalties of criminal organizations. These organizations publish these presses, and companies can access these data from certain sites.
International Database
The International Database (IDB) has been developed nationally for timely and accurate demographic measures for populations. Various US institutions regularly update the data contained in the IDB. IDB provides estimates and data for 228 countries and territories recognized by the US Department of State.
Special Websites
Special websites regularly post negative information caused by crimes such as fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. The main purpose of these websites is to build market trust.
Adverse Media Classification in Business Risk Assessment
We have mentioned that Adverse Media data comes from many sources. Besides, crimes belonging to a person or an organization are not of a single type. There may be many crimes involving a person or organization, and these crimes are included in Adverse Media data. Companies need to know which crimes people and organizations are involved in from certain sources. Adverse media screening software provides companies to check these resources.
Some of the crimes involved in Adverse Media data are as follows:
- Financial Crime: Financial crimes are very complex and grand crimes. There are many types of financial crimes, such as money laundering, financing of terrorism, fraud, bribery, arms trade, etc.
- Terrorism: Every person and organization involved in terrorism or terrorism financing appears on all Adverse Media channels. This crime is enormous, and the risks created by the persons or institutions involved in these crimes are quite high.
- Narcotics: Individuals and institutions engaged in the use, production, and trade of any drugs are included in Adverse Media channels if they are detected. Narcotic crimes can be related to financial crimes related to money laundering.
- Cybercrime: Cybercrimes can be used to commit financial crimes. Cybercrime is a crime that usually involves a computer and a network. Cybercrime can threaten the security and financial health of a person or nation.
- Fraud: Fraud, which can be done in forms of e-mail, message, or call, is a criminal offense, and any person or business involved in fraudulent activities carries risks.
Business Adverse Media Screening
There are Adverse Media data about many different types of people and institutions in a day. Manually scanning this Adverse Media data is extremely difficult, and the risk of errors is high. Companies prefer to use Adverse Media Screening software to get an accurate Adverse Media scan and save time. Adverse Media Screening is a service that allows searching for negative media and negative news about a person or business from different channels. Adverse Media Screening is an important part of the KYC and AML processes because Adverse Media Screening enables businesses to identify and protect from risks.
Opening an account with a customer with a bad reputation and cooperating with a bad reputation company can expose companies to significant risks so that companies can suffer reputation. Sanction Scanner's global coverage of Adverse Media data includes negative news such as money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, human trafficking, corruption, and tax evasion. Through this data, businesses can easily scan their customers, partners, and employees and be aware of their risks.
Advantages of Adverse Media Screening for Business
There are several benefits to businesses from using adverse media screening software, including:
- Adverse Media Screening software easily scans this daily news and categorizes negative news with artificial intelligence support. Using this software, businesses can scan their customers and partners on Adverse Media data in seconds. In this way, companies save a lot of time and get accurate results with artificial intelligence support.
- Along with machine learning algorithms, it finds all possible connections of people, such as Political Exposed Persons (PEP) and Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO), to crime. At the same time, Adverse Media Screening data includes sanction data of many authorities, such as OFAC and HMT, and Adverse Media data from similar sources. In this way, companies can check their customers' profiles and partners in global and national sanctions lists with this data.
- It can help identify potential risks associated with a person or organization, such as criminal activity, sanctions, or other negative news. Armed with this information, businesses can make well-informed decisions about whether to engage in business transactions with these entities.
- It can help organizations maintain a positive reputation by identifying and addressing any potentially negative information before it becomes a problem.
- Many industries and government agencies require organizations to conduct adverse media screenings as part of their compliance with regulations, such as AML laws. According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and European Union Directives, Adverse Media controls play a very important role in detecting high-risk customers and business partners.
- It is an important part of due diligence, providing a comprehensive view of a person or organization's reputation and helping to identify any potential risks.
Sanction Scanner's Adverse Media Screening Software for Businesses
Our global Adverse Media data includes news related to crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, and drug trafficking. With the Sanctions Scanner, businesses can perform Adverse Media control in addition to PEP and sanctions in Customer Onboarding processes and thus support AML compliance processes. Our globally comprehensive Adverse Media data can identify risks in companies' customer account opening processes.
Companies can easily perform Adverse Media checks with the customer's credentials. At the same time, companies can automatically check global comprehensive Sanctions, PEP, and Adverse Media data according to their risk levels with our solution. Moreover, using the Sanctions Scanner, businesses can perform their Adverse Media checks via the API, web, or batch files.
