## What is Watchlist?

Compliance teams need to know if customers, partners, or transactions are linked to sanctions, PEPs, enforcement actions, or adverse media. Because these risks change constantly, missing updates can create legal, regulatory, and reputational exposure.

**Watchlist Screening and Monitoring** helps prevent this by checking against trusted global sources and continuously monitoring for changes, using advanced matching to surface real risks without overwhelming teams with false positives.

**Available:** 🌍 Globally

| Enrichment | Input fields | Signals returned | Coverage | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Watchlist Screening** | Individuals, businesses, vessels, aircraft, bank accounts, crypto handles | - Name Match Scores (exact, fuzzy, phonetic, ML)<br>  <br>- Entity Match Scores (0–100 likelihood)<br>  <br>- Match status (potential, true positive, false positive)<br>  <br>- AI-generated case summaries | Global | AML/KYC compliance, sanctions checks, risk detection at onboarding |
| **Watchlist Monitoring** | Same as above, with portfolio import support | - Daily alerts via webhooks or email<br>  <br>- Continuous monitoring against sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media<br>  <br>- Workflow automation and audit trail | Global | Ongoing due diligence, background monitoring, risk operations |

## Business and operational outcomes

What you can expect from using Socure’s Watchlist Screening and Monitoring product:

- **78% fewer false positives** on average than competing solutions
- **80% case reviews on average**, from 10–15 minutes to 2.5 minutes
- **60% reduction** in resource and staffing costs
- Reduced exposure to **legal and reputational damage**

## Use cases

👤 Individual Screening & Monitoring

• Check customers at signup to block sanctioned or high-risk individuals

• Monitor in the background to catch new risks post-onboarding

🏢 Business Screening & Monitoring

• Vet companies, nonprofits, and other entities before partnerships

• Detect changes in ownership or control that introduce new risks

• Automate ongoing due diligence for AML/KYC compliance

💳 Payment Screening & Monitoring

• Screen senders and beneficiaries against routing number, account number, BIC, and crypto handle

## Unique features

### Watchlist Screening

Detect and prevent financial crime by checking **individuals, businesses, and other entities such as vessels, aircraft, bank accounts, and crypto handles** against global sanctions lists, politically exposed person (PEP) registries, and adverse media.

This is a core control for AML and KYC compliance.

### Watchlist Monitoring

Ongoing monitoring ensures you don’t miss new risks when lists are updated. The platform delivers:

- Daily **webhooks or email alerts** when a monitored entity is added to or updated on a list
- A **case management dashboard** for reviewing and dispositioning matches
- **Workflow automation** to streamline Tier 1 and Tier 2 reviews
- A complete **audit trail** to evidence compliance decisions

### Watchlists and data sources

Screen a wide range of entities — including **individuals, businesses, vessels, aircraft, bank accounts, and crypto handles** — against trusted global sources.

- **Sanctions and Watchlists**: 1,400+ global sanctions and enforcement lists
- **Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs)**: 2.4M profiles of political figures and close associates
- **Adverse Media**: Millions of articles across 100,000+ reputable sources
- **Custom Watchlists 
Coming Soon**: Screen against proprietary or internal lists

### Algorithms and machine learning scores

- **Name Match Score**: Exact, fuzzy, phonetic, and ML-based matching (including LSTM neural nets for cross-script variation).

> Example: “Alejandro Fernandez” ≈ “Алехандро Фернандез” ≈ “AL3HANDRO FERN4NDETH”

- **Entity Match Score**: 0–100 likelihood score factoring in name similarity, DOB, location, cultural context. Proven to reduce false positives by up to **70%**.

### AI Case summary

An AI-generated summary that provides analysis on the likelihood of a match being a **true positive** or **false positive**.

## Get started

[Configure watchlist policies](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist#/setup-policies#/)  
[Create a workflow](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/configure-watchlist-screening-workflows#/)  
[Create an evaluation for screening](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/integrate-watchlist-screening#/)

## Watchlist features

[Matches & scores](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/setup-policies#/31-name-match-score)  
[Source lists](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist-scope#/)  
[Case management](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist-case-management#/)

## Integration

[Request schema](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/integrate-watchlist-screening#/evaluation-request-parameters-for-watchlist-screening)  
[Handle results](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/integrate-watchlist-screening#/evaluation-response-parameters-with-watchlist-screening-results)  
[Webhooks](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist-webhooks-overview#/)

## Go deeper

[Portfolio import](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/porfolio-import-guide#/)  
[Workflows & roles](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist-case-management#/)  
[Troubleshooting](https://help.socure.com/riskos/docs/watchlist-troubleshooting#/)

## Key Terms

| Term | Definition |
| --- | --- |
| **Input Data** | Raw identities or entities you submit for screening—like a person, business, or asset (e.g., wallet, vessel). May include name, date of birth, or social-security number. |
| **Entity** | A normalized identity that consolidates multiple records into one profile. Example: “Rob Mehdi,” “R. Mehdi,” and “Robert Mehdi” all resolve to one unified entity. |
| **Listed Entity** | A record from an official sanctions or watchlist source (e.g., OFAC, UN list). These are entities formally flagged by regulators or enforcement bodies. |
| **Watchlist Screening** | The process of checking identities against risk-based watchlists—sanctions, PEP registers, adverse media, and more. |
| **Politically Exposed Person (PEP)** | An individual in a prominent public or political role (e.g., senior government official, military leader, or SOE executive). |
| **Relatives and Close Associates (RCA)** | People closely connected to PEPs or sanctioned individuals—such as family members, business partners, or other close contacts. |
| **Adverse Media** | Information from public/media sources suggesting risk (e.g., reporting on legal issues, fraud, corruption, or other negative activity). |
| **Match** | Outcome when input data is compared to listed entities.<br>• Potential match (initial hit): flagged for review.<br>• True positive: confirmed as the same entity.<br>• False positive: similar but not the same. |
| **Alert** | A reviewable item generated when a potential match occurs. This is flagged for human verification. |
| **Decision** | The resolution of an alert by a reviewer—confirming whether it’s a true positive or false positive. |
| **True Positive** | A verified match between your input data and a listed entity. |
| **False Positive** | A match that appears plausible but is incorrect—often due to common names or overlapping attributes.