Pillar C
Screening
Sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media screening at onboarding and on an ongoing basis, with a documented process for reviewing every match.
Sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media screening
Every client and transaction party is screened against the sanctions lists a UAE DNFBP is expected to check: the UN Consolidated List, OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals list, EU sanctions, UK OFSI's consolidated list, and the UAE Local Terrorist List. Alongside sanctions screening, we check for politically exposed person (PEP) status and adverse media — negative news coverage that may not appear on a formal list but is nonetheless relevant to assessing risk.
Ongoing monitoring, not a one-time check
Sanctions and PEP status aren't static — a client who screened clean at onboarding can appear on a list months later. Perpetual monitoring re-screens your existing client book automatically whenever the underlying watchlists update, so a new designation is caught without waiting for the next scheduled review.
Choosing a screening frequency
How often you re-screen depends on the nature of your client relationships. These are the illustrative frequency options we configure for clients — pricing for each is covered on our pricing page, not here:
Onboarding only
A one-time sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media screen run at the point of client onboarding. Suits low-frequency or one-off transactions where the relationship doesn't continue afterward.
Quarterly
Onboarding screening plus a re-screen every quarter, catching new sanctions listings or adverse-media coverage that emerges after a relationship is established.
Continuous monitoring
Onboarding screening plus perpetual monitoring, with automatic re-screening triggered whenever watchlists update. The standard approach for ongoing client relationships and higher-risk portfolios.
How a flagged match gets resolved
A screening hit is not the same as a confirmed match — names and entities can overlap without being the same party. Every flagged result goes through a structured review before any decision is made:
Screening run
A client or transaction party is checked against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media sources.
Match flagged
A potential match is surfaced for review rather than automatically actioned.
Reviewer adjudicates
A trained reviewer assesses the match and determines true-positive or false-positive.
Outcome logged
The decision and its rationale are recorded on the client file for audit purposes.
Reviewers adjudicate each match as a true positive or false positive, and the outcome — along with the reasoning behind it — is logged against the client file, so the decision can be explained to a regulator later, not just remembered.
Set up screening for your client book
We'll recommend a screening frequency based on your client mix and transaction volume on a scoping call.
Book a Free AML Scoping Call