Adverse Media

As part of our PEPs & Sanctions screening, we offer the ability to screen if there is any evidence that an individual has been reported to have been involved in financial crime from global newspapers, new sites or other verified media. This is called adverse media. 

You can run adverse media checks either manually as part of a PEPs & Sanctions check by following the steps here, or if you have it enabled, it will automatically run for any journeys that contain PEPs & Sanctions (you can request to enable it here). Please note - adverse media checks are not included in Credas+ remediation.

What is adverse media?

Adverse media, which can sometimes be called negative news, refers to any publicly available information that links an individual or organisation to suspicious, illegal, unethical or high-risk behaviour. This information is usually uncovered through sources like news outlets, court records, government databases and public registries which reveals if the individual has been wanted, charged, indicted, prosecuted, convicted or sentenced in relation to criminal activity that falls under FATF guidelines.  Adverse media can cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited too:

• Fraud of financial crime;
• Money laundering;
• Bribery or corruption;
• Tax evasion. 

Why it matters?

Adverse media checks are designed to help you surface information about individuals that they may not wish to share with you and is important for:

• Understanding who you are doing business with: Adverse media provides a fuller picture of an individual beyond official documents or self-reported data so you are fully aware of the reputational, legal and financial risks associated with working with the individual.
• Making risk-informed decisions: Adverse media alerts help identify red flags early, allowing organisations to avoid high-risk relationships or apply enhanced due diligence where needed. Catching high-risk individuals early can prevent exposure to money laundering, fraud or sanctions violations. 
• Protecting brand and reputation: Even indirect associations with financial crime or unethical behaviour can seriously damage public trust and corporate reputation. 

Adverse media using Credas

What information does Credas provide?

The following information will typically be available for adverse media hits to help you identify if the possible match is the individual in question, and to help you create a risk assessment:

• The FATF category and subcategory the activity falls under (please see below);
• The title of the article/report;
• A summary of the article/report; 
• The credibility of the report:
  • High credibility: An official source is a piece of evidence sourced from websites of government bodies, agencies and courts.
  • Medium: Only when official evidence is not available/does not exist due to lack of transparency, restricted access to primary official evidence or delayed public release of data, will medium categorised sources be used. This includes media sources from mass media outlets and other reputable sources reporting on regulatory and law enforcement action such as BBC, national and local newspapers.  
• When the information was added to the database;
• When the article was originally published which may differ from the capture data;
• The original URL of the article/report s you can view the article itself. If the URL is no longer active, you will also be presented an evidence file PDF of the article. 

What is inside/outside the scope of adverse media? 

Our checks will only surface reports of criminal activity that falls within the FATF (The Financial Action Task Force) guidelines for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. The below table provides examples of what is included/not included:  

We only use official sources that you can rely upon rather than opinions, conjecture and allegations. For example, whilst Vladimir Putin will be flagged as a PEP and on international sanctions lists; he will not flag up for adverse media. Despite numerous allegations, including one by the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he has never been charged or indicted for crimes that would flag under adverse media. In comparison, former Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies would flag under an adverse media search because in 2019 he was charged with two counts of making a false instrument and one count of providing false/misleading information for allowance claims.

What happens if a possible match has flagged?

Adverse media is not included within Credas+, which means any possible matches that appear, will need manual remediation. Using your internal compliance policy, you will need to identify if the possible match is the individual in question, and remediate the result. We recommend reviewing the full report to understand the reasons why the possible match has flagged. If you need assistance to remediate the report, please see our guide here. If the possible match is the individual in question, it is down to your organisations internal policies on what you should do next.

How much does this cost?

If adverse media is run alongside PEPs & Sanctions either by yourselves doing a manual check, or as part of a journey, the check is included within your 1 credit for PEPs & Sanctions.

Got any questions? 

If you have any questions please reach out to the Credas support team by contacting us here

We are committed to continually improving our support resources for you. We would greatly appreciate your feedback on this article to help us enhance your experience.