PEPS AND SANCTIONS SCREENING

Easily identify high-risk customers and manage ongoing monitoring – on your terms!

With Credas’ PEPs and Sanctions checks, you can tailor the datasets we interrogate and our data matching levels to your risk appetite. Screening is the primary defense against financial crimes like money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud, and corruption. Effortlessly identify whether your clients are on sanctioned lists or are a politically exposed person in real-time with our PEP and Sanctions checks software.

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MANAGE YOUR ENHANCED CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE WITH OUR PEPS AND SANCTIONS SCREENING SOFTWARE

Under money laundering regulations in a bid to fight financial crime, firms must identify whether someone is regarded as a Politically Exposed Person and therefore presents a higher risk to the firm. Politically exposed persons (PEPs) are individuals with significant political influence or close associations with high-ranking government officials, leaving them more open to bribery and financial crime, particularly when dealing with financial institutions. In addition, all firms are also required to ensure they are not working with sanctioned individuals under the anti money laundering act. Failure to have sufficient processes in place to identify high-risk customers can result in significant fines or even disqualification.

PEPs and Sanction lists change regularly, as people and entities are added or removed, so having access to the right data is vital, for maximum efficiency. Credas makes it easy for firms to identify high-risk individuals with their AML compliance process, delivering results in real-time from a large range of official datasets. Should a potential match be identified, it is flagged so you can take further action and add notes / further evidence before continuing. For those who would pose a higher risk to your business through illegal activities, this is a compliance hotspot, and missing changes would open your business to regulatory risk and reputational damage.

Ongoing monitoring of customers is crucial to ensure compliance with PEP and sanctions requirements. Firms must monitor PEPs closely to ensure there is no change in the risk they pose to the business. In property, automated solutions can continuously monitor tenants and guarantors for changes in their PEP or sanctions status.

We also offer the option to integrate our solution into your CRM system streamlining the customer onboarding process and ensuring your CDD process is met consistently.

PEPs and Sanctions guide

Spend less time on PEPs & Sanctions searches

PEP headshots

Headshots for easy remediation

Our screening software returns headshots, minimising the risk of false positives and helping you make more informed decisions.

PEP matching

PASS or FAIL results only!

With our Credas+ add-on you no longer need to worry about mountains of manual remediation, we do it all for you.

Ongoing monitoring

Always on ongoing monitoring

We help automate your ongoing monitoring, checking for new information whenever sources are updated meaning you won’t miss any updates.

KEY FEATURES OF OUR PEPS AND SANCTIONS SOFTWARE

Official government sanctions lists
Proactive ongoing monitoring
Law enforcement & SIPs
Corporate sanction checks
Adverse media searches
Relatives and Close Associates screening
Tailorable PEP screening
Headshots of identified individuals
Easy internal audit trail

Your screening process. Your compliance choice

When it comes to PEPs and Sanctions checks, some businesses take the approach of meeting minimum requirements, while others wish to cast a wider net with enhanced due diligence when starting a new customer relationship. We don’t dictate how you should be screening clients. Instead, we give you the freedom to decide based on your risk appetite.

We allow you the flexibility to choose what’s right for your firm, whether you want adverse media on as standard, whether you want to search for disqualified directorships or you’re only interested in the UK’s HM Treasury’s office official sanctions list. The choice is yours.  You can also control the degree to which we match an individual against the data available. Maybe you want just a name match or a name, date of birth match and nationality match. By putting you in control of your PEPs and Sanction screening choices, you decide what’s important or not, not your software.

To make it easy for our customers, we’ve also set up 10 different profiles each configured to different risk appetite levels depending whether you are screening customer to meeting AML obligations or simply for reputational management. Starting with UK-only searches to full international PEPs and Sanctions screening. Our software will then deliver the results in real-time helping you to identify financially sanctioned individuals and potentially high-risk customers.

PEPs & Sanctions screening alerts

PEPS AND SANCTIONS FAQS

How often are your PEPs and Sanctions data updated?
Our UK Sanctions list, alongside our UN, EU & US lists are monitored for new releases several times daily while all other international lists are updated overnight. Our database of Politically Exposed Persons including Relatives and Close Associates is refreshed daily based a wider range of official government sources and trusted third party organisations.

What are PEP tiers?
Based on Money Laundering Regulations as well as UK Government guidance, PEPs can be categorised into different tiers depending on their role. For example, Heads of State and Government would be regarded as Tier 1 while prominent public functions such as mayors and members of local councils or their family members would be Tier 4. Under UK Government guidance the expectation is firms should be identify Tier 1 & 2 PEPs as a minimum.

How much can we be fined for failure to comply with money laundering regulations?
HMRC and the SRA have unlimited fining powers for AML breaches, so fines can vary depending on the size and nature of the failure within the due diligence process. For example, National Westminster Bank plc were fined £264.7m in 2021 for failing to comply with AML regulations. On a smaller scale, HSR Law was fined £23.5k by the SRA in 2025 for failing to meet MLR requirements.

Failure to comply with PEP and sanctions regulations can lead to personal liability for individuals within the organization, including loss of practicing certificates and criminal prosecution.

If my client is identified as a politically exposed person (PEP) must I stop working with them?
Whilst you can continue to work with a known PEP, such as someone who is linked to political parties, you should carry out enhanced due diligence of the business relationship such as verifying both their source of funds and wealth, checking for any financial sanctions or if they are linked to any international organisations.

How long do I need to setup ongoing monitoring for?
Money-laundering regulation does not stipulate how often or for how long you need to conduct ongoing monitoring for. Instead, it states that ongoing monitoring must be ‘undertaken throughout the course of the relationship (including, where necessary, the source of funds) to ensure that the transactions are consistent with the relevant person’s knowledge of the customer, the customer’s business and risk profile’. The basic principle is that the higher the risk, the more thorough your due diligence and therefore ongoing monitoring. We allow you to tailor your ongoing monitoring on a customer by customer basis based on your own risk assessment, so it is reflective of the risk they impose.

What is information do your adverse media checks contain?
Our adverse media checks are designed to help you surface information about your clients that they may not wish to share with you. We only use official sources that you can rely upon rather than conjecture and allegations. The data is sourced from a wide range of relevant information and datasets published by official government resources as well as highly regarded media outlets. Only when official evidence is not available, will mass media articles with evidence of or reference to official action by the authorities will be used. Articles without such reference are considered allegations and low credibility and are therefore excluded from any results. Evidence obtained from social media sites, forums, and blogs, as well as the usage of client self-disclosure information, is excluded from all results as it lacks a credible original sources.

USEFUL AML LINKS

FCA – Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Anti-money Laundering Legislation Guidance Notes

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

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