Watchlist screening is an integral part of an AML check. The potentially matching data from various sanctions and watchlists is compared against the applicant profile to establish a match.

Watchlists are databases containing lists that businesses use for regular identity checks against known or suspected terrorists, money launderers, fraudsters, sanctioned persons, or PEPs.

Currently, Sumsub uses data from 10,000 independent and reliable data sources from 200+ countries and territories to ensure compliance with all local and global standards. These sources include:

• The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Sanctions
• The United Nations Security Council’s Sanctions list
• Her Majesty’s (HM) Treasury List
• The EU Consolidated Sanctions List
• The EU Most Wanted Warnings
• The Bureau of Industry and Security
• The State Department Foreign Terrorist Organizations List and Non-Proliferation List
• US DOJ (FBI, DEA, US Marshals, and others)
• Interpol’s Most Wanted
• CBI List (The Central Bureau of Investigation)

We also offer an ongoing monitoring option that notifies the client each time their applicant status regarding AML screening changes.

When data is updated?

We update our data as soon as the changes are made to the sanctions lists and watchlists, and we use Fuzzy matching to reduce false positives, at the same time making sure no name variations are omitted upon screening.

This lets you get reliable data from trustworthy sources, reduce manual labor and protect your business from potential fraudsters and risky users.

The following table explains refreshment time per data type:

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Applicable to Politically exposed persons (PEPs), National warning lists, and Fitness and probity

All data sources run on monthly intervals which means that the maximum time it takes from the moment a source updates to the moment it is in our database is one month, however it exceeds two weeks rather seldom.